Army of True Salvation - Chapter 40：Samuel

Sheloah clapped her hands two times. Their surroundings then suddenly turned silent as they felt the wind getting colder by the second. They were nervously anticipating for the zombies to arrive after Sheloah clapped her hands.

They all became serious as they waited for each second. After a few moments, they already heard some groans. Some of their classmates panicked, but they were trying their best to calm themselves down.

Now, some zombies already entered the rooftop. The students instinctively protected the parents as they surrounded them.

Most of the job of the parents were being medics, except for Dannie’s father. He was actually also helping in teaching the students on how to use a gun since he was part of the Philippine army.

When the zombies already reached them, the supports of the other groups initiated the attack. The attackers were waiting for their moment to attack. They will only attack once the crowd could no longer be controlled between the zombies and the humans.

The healers were on standby in the middle of the groups, too. They vowed to act quickly once they notice any of their comrades injured.

Tyler went beside Sheloah. “I think it’s good if we leave this place already and we start heading towards the playground. 4A is ready,” he said and Josh spoke as well.

“Tyler’s right. If we stay here for too long, zombies would be too distracted to go up and it would be very difficult for us to leave.” Sheloah nodded at the two boys. They have a point.

“Let’s attack the zombies in this location. Once we kill almost all of them, we go down to proceed going to the playground. We should prioritize our escape rather than attacking most of them,” Sheloah said, loud enough for their classmates to hear.

When they already killed most of the zombies in their current location, Sheloah signaled for them to run downstairs for them to proceed towards the playground where the vehicles had parked for their escape.

But alas, Sheloah’s group noticed something once more when they had reached the computer lab.

Sir Jim suddenly slowed down his movements the moment 4A reached the computer lab. He was starting to be wary of his surroundings, and his eyes look pained. Sheloah looked at him.

‘Why is he always like this near the computer lab?’

Veon went beside Sheloah as he attacked. “Sir Jim’s at it again,” he said and Sheloah looked at their teacher cautiously.

“What’s with the computer lab? This had happened for a number of times already,” Sheloah commented and Veon shrugged his shoulders as he attacked.

They stopped thinking about this for a while. They started running again and had reached the garden near the cafeteria. Sheloah took a quick look at her classmates.

She noticed that the supports were doing their best to attack zombies using their melee weapons. Furthermore, the attackers were shooting zombies as accurately as possible as well. For the medics, they were also doing their responsibilities, too. They were alert in observing their comrades if they’re hurt or not.

One male zombie was about to approach Sheloah. As she noticed this, she started to aim the zombie’s head. She had stopped midway when she noticed that the zombie’s face looked familiar. She observed its face carefully and her eyes grew wider when she realized who the person was.

“Samuel?”

Sheloah said his name, almost in a whisper. She was in disbelief. Samuel was one of Veon’s circle of friends since he started high school. They had been friends for almost four years and now he turned into a zombie as well?

Sheloah thought of Veon and her heart ached again. What if he knew that one of his precious friend had turned into a zombie? How will he be able to take it? What would he do?

She held her gun tightly, not knowing what to do, whether to attack or just ignore Veon’s friend. Sheloah knew she could not just attack this person suddenly even if she knew he was no longer sane. It’s best if she would just ignore him.

The moment Sheloah turned back as she decided to ignore the zombie, she was surprised to see Veon. She met Veon’s sad eyes.

“Veon…” She just said his name but he didn’t say anything. He was just staring at the zombie who was once his best friend.

“Damn it… even my friend,” Veon said to himself in anger. He started to approach Samuel slowly and this had shocked Sheloah.

She suddenly held Veon’s hand, stopping him from going near his zombie best friend.

“Veon, don’t be reckless,” she warned him but Veon just ignored her. He shrug his arm from Sheloah and had continued walking towards Samuel.

The moment he had reached Samuel, Sheloah prayed for Veon’s safety. It was as if he was gambling his life over his zombie best friend.

Veon held Samuel’s shoulder and had quickly got his knife. It surprised Sheloah when she saw that Veon had stabbed his precious friend at the front.

‘Why?’

Veon was trying his best to stop his tears from escaping his eyes. The moment Veon removed his knife from Samuel’s chest, the zombie staggered to the ground, helpless. Veon couldn’t bear to see the image so he looked away as he shot his head with a gun, leading to his friend’s death.

“You once told me that a real friend stabs him in front, not at the back,” he said as he looked at the corpse on the floor, depressed. “I did it for you. I can’t bare to see you suffering—not being yourself. I did you a favor.”

As he walked away, Sheloah quickly followed him and held his hand tightly, cheering him up. She knew Veon was trying to be strong in front of them when deep down, she knew he was bottling up all of these feelings.

‘I’ll always be here for you, Veon.’