heavenward | n.scatorccio

The gym buzzed with tension, the kind that made Julianna's stomach twist. They were sitting in a lopsided circle near the middle of the gym floor, with candles scattered unevenly between them. Shauna had been the one to light them, her movements purposeful as she counted out the days on a scrap of notebook paper she kept tucked into her pocket.

Two days. That's how long Coach Ben had been unconscious.

Two days without anyone making real decisions.

They'd done surprisingly okay, cleared some hallways, scavenged vending machines, even managed to keep themselves from outright tearing each other apart, but the cracks were starting to show.

Julianna could feel it in the way Jackie and Shauna whispered too much, in the way people  snapped at Travis when he didn't pull his weight, in the way everyone kept glancing at their empty water bottles as if staring at them would magically fill them.

Water.

The word alone felt heavier than the backpack she hadn't fully unpacked yet.

"We're running out," Shauna said, her voice breaking through the tense hum of half-whispered conversations. "We can survive without food for a while, but not water. If we don't figure it out soon, it's over."

"We know," Travis snapped. He was sitting cross-legged, his face shadowed by candlelight. "We're not stupid."

"Hey," Van shot back, her voice sharp. "Don't take your shit out on her."

"Okay, enough," Taissa interjected, her tone steady and commanding. She stood near the edge of the circle, her arms crossed. "Arguing isn't going to magically fix the taps. Someone needs to check out the water storage tank."

"And how exactly do we find that?" Mari muttered, pulling her knees to her chest.

"It's on the roof somewhere," Julianna said quietly, but loud enough for everyone to hear. She looked up from where she was sitting on the floor, her fingers nervously pulling at a loose thread on her sleeve. "Probably a part we haven't explored yet. They usually have external access, and if the taps aren't working, it's probably because something's blocking the supply."

The room went quiet, all eyes turning toward her.

Julianna hated when that happened. She felt her face grow warm, and she looked down at the thread, willing it to unravel faster.

"So, what, you're suddenly an expert on school plumbing?" Gen said, her tone somewhere between dismissive and skeptical.

"Not an expert," Julianna muttered, her voice soft but steady. "I just read about some stuff. Manuals, mostly. For fun. It was just interesting because i like architecture."

"For fun?" Mari echoed, her tone dripping with disbelief.

"Who cares why she knows?" Taissa cut in, glaring at Mari before glancing back at Julianna. "If you're right, we'll need to find it soon. But we can't send everyone. We'll vote on who goes."

The argument broke out immediately.

"No way I'm going," Travis said, holding his hands up. "I'm not climbing on some roof just to get stuck and die."

"You'd be useless anyway," Shauna muttered, earning her a sharp glare from him.

Jackie shook her head. "We should send the strongest people."

"No, we should send the smartest people," Misty chimed in, her voice eager. "I'll go! I don't mind at all. I was a Red Cross trainee twice, remember? And I've already been on the roof before, it's no big deal."

No one responded to her right away, and Misty's enthusiasm wavered for a moment.

"Sure," Mari said condescendingly, "send Misty. That'll end well."

"Don't be mean," Julianna found herself saying before she could think better of it. Her voice wasn't loud, but it was firm enough to make her glance at her in mild surprise.

More arguing followed, the room buzzing with tension as alliances and insults formed in real-time. Eventually, Shauna stepped in, pointing out how long they'd already been arguing and suggesting they just vote.

The results were messy. Taissa was chosen, mostly because of her determination and leadership skills. Misty, unsurprisingly, volunteered herself and ended up picked out of sheer lack of objections.

And Julianna.

She didn't even really understand how she ended up part of the group. Probably because she'd been the one to suggest the tank, and no one could deny her logic.

"Wait—," she said after the votes were finalized. "Why me?"

Taissa shrugged. "You know the most about this stuff. Makes sense to me."

Misty nodded, smiling brightly in a way that made most people uneasy. "It's a great idea. We are all capable."

Julianna sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. She knew putting herself down wouldn't help. If she backed out now, she'd just look like a coward. And besides, it wasn't like she could let Misty and Taissa do it alone.

"..Okay," she said finally, pulling herself to her feet. "But if we die, I'm haunting the narrative."

Misty giggled like she thought it was the funniest thing she'd ever heard. Taissa just rolled her eyes, her lips twitching into the barest hint of a smirk.

They packed their things quickly, flashlights just incase, makeshift weapons, a backpack for a bunch of pots and headed toward the blocked big double doors.

The hallway was eerily quiet apart from their muffled footsteps on the scuffed, now bloodied, floor. The light filtering in from broken windows illuminated fragments of paper, fallen lockers, and dark stains smeared on the walls. Julianna kept a tight grip on the baseball bat she had scavenged earlier, her palms slick with sweat despite the cool air.

She was walking behind Misty, who clutched her crowbar like it was an extension of her arm. She's fairly sure Misty claimed it as hers at this point. Misty looked confident in her ability, even enthusiastic, scanning the hallway with a gleam in her eye. Meanwhile, Taissa took the lead, hockey stick in hand, her shoulders taut like a coiled spring.

Julianna's stomach churned as they passed a tattered banner that read "Buzz, Buzz, Buzz!" She glanced at the bat in her hands, silently thanking whoever left it behind. It was solid and reassuring in her grip, but she wasn't exactly brimming with confidence.

At least it wasn't a chair leg.

She hated how vulnerable she felt compared to the others. Misty's excitement aside, Taissa moved like she belonged in the apocalypse—steady, fearless, and deliberate. Julianna, on the other hand, felt like an awkward mix of panic and impulsiveness. Fighting these infected required a combination of skill and physical strength she simply didn't have yet.

Julianna wasn't weak. She was stronger than most people probably assumed, but her strength was average, not the strength you needed for sports, or the kind you needed to swing a bat at someone, or something, trying to tear you apart. And when it came to stamina? Forget it. She couldn't remember the last time she'd done anything remotely athletic unless you counted power-walking between classes. She barely left her house.

Still, she promised herself she'd learn. She had to. If she was going to survive, she owed herself that much. She was determined to figure out how to fight properly, how to move quickly, how to outlast the exhaustion.

Ahead, Taissa suddenly stopped and held up a hand, motioning for them to be silent.

Misty froze immediately, her grip on the crowbar tightening. Julianna stopped a second later, heart pounding as she followed Taissa's gaze down the dim hallway.

A pack of them.

Four, maybe five of the infected lingered just ahead, hunched and twitching near the lockers like grotesque shadows. Julianna's stomach turned as she took in their details: bloodshot glassy eyes rolling in their sockets, veins bulging like black vines under paper-thin skin, jerky movements that spoke of both violence and unpredictability. Their jaws hung slack, some grotesquely unhinged, with bloodied saliva dribbling down their chins.

Once they locked onto you, they were terrifyingly fast, their speed far beyond what most people could match. They never slowed, no matter how far they ran or how much strain their bodies endured. Exhaustion meant nothing to them, breathless chases never forced them to pause, and pain was completely ignored. Relentless, unyielding, and utterly inhumane, they just kept coming.

They weren't quite human anymore, but they weren't entirely something else, either. It was the faint trace of humanity that made it worse. The way they mumbled incoherently or shuffled like they still remembered how to walk properly. It made it harder to see them as threats and not victims.

One of them turned its head slightly, and Julianna swore she could hear the faint crack of vertebrae. The stench of decay filled her nose, sharp and suffocating. She wondered briefly how morgue workers had managed to handle smells like this prior to the apocalypse.

Taissa crouched low, her expression calculating. She gestured with two fingers, signaling Misty and Julianna to crouch down as well.

Julianna obliged, clutching her bat tightly as she leaned closer to Misty. "What's the plan?" she whispered, barely audible.

"They haven't seen us yet," Taissa murmured. Her voice was calm but firm. "We can't take all of them at once. We need to pick them off."

Misty nodded enthusiastically, her eyes darting between the infected. "Divide and conquer. I'll take the one closest to the left," she whispered.

Julianna frowned, her voice quiet. "How do we know they won't all charge us the second we go after one?"

Taissa glanced over her shoulder, meeting Julianna's eyes. "We don't. That's why we stick together. We hit fast, take one down, move to the next. No hesitation."

"No pressure," Julianna muttered under her breath.

Misty grinned at her, somehow still thrilled. "It'll be fine. Just aim for the head, like we talked about. You'll do great!"

Julianna resisted the urge to sigh. She didn't exactly feel great, but now wasn't the time to argue. It was day 3, she had killed about 3 of them so far. She glanced at the pack again, her stomach twisting as one of them twitched violently, its jaw making a sickening crunch as it opened and closed.

It wasn't dying that scared her, it was how it would happen. The thought of flesh tearing, screams echoing, and the unbearable pain was enough to send shivers down her spine. If she had to go, she wanted it to be quick, instantaneous, not an agonizingly drawn-out nightmare.

"Okay," Taissa whispered, gripping her hockey stick like a spear. "On my signal."

Julianna's hands trembled slightly as she adjusted her grip on the bat. She didn't trust her own strength, but she'd have to try.

Taissa took a slow breath and raised three fingers.

Two.

One.

She surged forward with a precision that was almost graceful, the hockey stick slicing through the air as she brought it down on the first infected.

Misty followed immediately, swinging her crowbar with startling strength, the metal connecting with a sickening crunch.

Julianna was a half-second behind them, her bat colliding with the side of another infected's head. The impact reverberated up her arms, and she stumbled slightly but recovered, adrenaline flooding her system.

The remaining infected turned toward them, their movements jerky and erratic, teeth gnashing and fingers bent at unnatural angles. Julianna barely had time to catch her breath before Taissa shouted, "Next one! Go!"

They moved as a unit, disjointed but effective, fighting off the pack one by one.

By the time the last one hit the ground, Julianna was gasping for air, her hands shaking from the exertion. She had put the last down with one too many bashes to the head. A gun felt like it would've been kinder. She leaned on the bat for support, glancing at Misty, who was grinning like she'd just won a prize.

"See?" Misty said brightly. "We're a great team!"

Julianna didn't answer right away. She just looked at the bodies on the floor, her chest rising and falling as she tried to steady her breathing.

"We're not dead, so... yeah," she said finally, her voice strained but dry.

Taissa looked over at her, nodding slightly. "Not bad, Julianna."

Julianna blinked, caught off guard by the compliment. Everyone was giving her compliments nowadays, at least the apocalypse was good for something. She nodded back, trying to hide how much her arms ached.

"Let's keep moving," Taissa said, already turning toward the end of the hallway.

Julianna took a deep breath, readjusting her grip on the bat as they pressed forward. She couldn't afford to fall apart now.