Army of True Salvation - Chapter 24：No Welcome at All

“I wished for unli-rice[1] even now that we are in a zombie apocalypse.” Sheloah lied and the both of them laughed out loud. After a while, Veon spoke again.

“Seriously,” he said as Sheloah nodded enthusiastically. She was a foodie and so was Veon.

But he knew she was lying.

Veon looked at Sheloah seriously. “What was your wish,” he asked as he saw right through Sheloah. He knew her well.

She sighed and smiled at him. “Fine, I’ll tell you,” she said as she giggled slightly, remembering her wish. “I wished for Seth’s happiness,” she added and Veon tilted his head, curious.

“Who’s Seth?” Sheloah smiled at him sadly. Seth was his code name for him.

“The person I love.” Veon nodded his head, acknowledging Sheloah’s answer. He knew she was now telling the truth but he didn’t know that he was the person Sheloah’s referring to.

Sheloah looked at the sea of stars above. “No matter what, we’ll always be friends, right,” she asked and Veon smiled at her.

“Yes. No matter what happens.” Sheloah showed a bitter smile Veon couldn’t see.

‘No matter what.’

Sheloah looked back at Veon as she punched his shoulder slightly. “Yeah, friends! Now and always!” She stood up and stretched. “Let’s go back. They’re waiting for us,” she added and Veon stood as well, nodding at her suggestion.

They already rode the car and Veon started driving back to school.

***

They arrived school and at the entrance, they noticed that there were only a few zombies left but the zombies in their school’s quadrangle were quite a lot.

Sheloah got her machine pistol the moment they were in front of the school’s clinic. There were a few zombies there and the both of them shot them dead.

Veon and Sheloah quickly ran up the stairs and attacked zombies along the way. Some of their classmates saw them approaching when they looked at the door’s glass so they had already opened the door for their entrance.

They arrived safe and sound and their classmates were in good hands, too. The brave three, the volunteers, were responsible enough to watch and protect their classmates. Sheloah smiled at them.

When the two arrived, Josh and Tyler approached them and told them briefly on what had happened after their arrival. As Sheloah was listening to the two, she looked around and noticed that their classmates were not themselves.

There was no welcome at all.

Most of their classmates were crying and some even seemed to have a world of their own. Most of them were frowning as they frantically looked at their phones. Judging by the looks of it, their parents or family didn’t seem to make it. With the 46 students around in the rooftop, only 14 of the population had their family successfully reach the school.

As Sheloah was assessing the surroundings, she was surprised to see Sir Erick, their Social Sciences teacher, with Sir Jim. He noticed that Sheloah was looking at him so he nodded at her with a smile.

Sheloah looked at Tyler and Josh who had long done talking. “How did Sir Erick come here,” she asked and both of them didn’t answer as they were looking at their phones. They seemed to be in a bad mood to answer Sheloah.

She didn’t bother them. Maybe they were too sad to think about their family. Sheloah really did feel happy to know that her family was present… but she also felt sad that most of her classmates’ families didn’t make it. For her classmates, this situation was really unfair. Those who had their families with them were indeed lucky.

As she was thinking, she hadn’t noticed Sir Jim and Sir Erick approaching them. Sheloah spoke the moment they had reached her. “Sir Erick, how did you come here?”

“I was hiding at the room near the guidance office. When I was there, I saw some metal sheets and made myself a weapon. I was able to make myself a temporary spear. I used my pocket knife to make it,” Sir Erick answered and Sheloah’s eyes widened, amazed.

“Your uncle and I were surprised, too. When we came here, Sir Erick was already here. Dean allowed him to enter when Sir Erick showed them a written note indicating that he wasn’t a zombie,” Sir Jim added and Sheloah nodded slowly as she listened.

“When we threw the grenade and when we left, you took the chance to escape, didn’t you,” Sheloah said and Sir Erick nodded at her.

“Yes. And starting today, I will come with you. I will be of great use.” Sheloah smiled at him.

“Thank you, Sir Erick.” She thanked him and the two teachers made their way towards Ms. Pauline, the class adviser.