A Game to Be Played (Part 1 - Zombie Apocalypse)

A Game to be Played by PJ Tenten Lee

North of the bridge, I see the defense,

Certainly, I can’t be tensed.

Over those wooden planks, I know that

Vicious infected people are waiting for more fresh flesh.

Can I make it through?

One bullet, a melee, now or never.

Versus those freaking biters,

Initiating a step forward is the only choice.

Damn! I must survive with my own voice.

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The sun rays kissed my face after an hour of jogging and exercising in the tower. It seemed that I only had 45 minutes to take a shower and prepare the things I must carry with me on the campus. I strode down the road and headed to my home. Surely, my breakfast would be taken at around 9:30 in the morning, kind’a late, but that is how my routine goes. My first class begins at 7:30 with my own advisory class. I have been teaching them the remaining lessons on World Literature before the week of final exams.

Romeo & Juliet and Hamlet are some of the plays written by William Shakespeare and are considered classic and ubiquitous. These stories about love, tragedy, and vengeance opened the philosophical minds of my students as if they traveled back to the Elizabethan Age. They woke up one day sharing their values learned, debating on some issues about the main characters’ love affairs. When I see them speaking like that, I smile because I see them growing and maturing. The best things that happen to my class are when the learners look up to the life lessons that shape them to become better people and when they certainly do not rely only on textbooks or other printed materials.

There are those who began to love reading short stories and I am working on influencing them in exploring novels and writing their own masterpieces. I also suggest to my students that they can also watch films which bring them more visual representations not only focusing on the levels of their wild imaginations but also rooting for abstract and concrete experiences that might help them cope up with unexpected situations in life. This is how I teach them. I see that fiction has gone too far, not clashing with the non-fictitious selections, but telling them that even stories and tales may happen in the real world where they wake up being astonished and awestricken to rare events and experiences.

The day is filled with joy, laughter, smile, learnings, values, sometimes sadness, when I am in school. Whenever I leave after working hours, it feels like I am entering another empty night. It’s like a solstice that creates the Aurora Borealis in the Northern Hemisphere. The empty night pushed me to read some articles that were posted on the page of National Geographic Channel where I found the conspicuous enigma of the Black Death in the year 1350. It happened long ago and killed one-third of the world population. It was said that this bubonic plague possibly started in Asia and moved west in caravans. It also spread in Europe rapidly, the grounds were stained by the dead bodies. The streets were full of ominous rotting corpses. The Black Death is not the only malevolent flu that tormented the people on Earth. As I was reading, I felt dizzy and noticed that my forehead touched my study desk.

Then it happened.

This empty night succumbed me with screams of people, dashing and jostling through the crowded streets. It was so chaotic that dusty smoke ventured everywhere. I could not fathom what was happening. I was trembling. I saw the others lying down while their drops of blood painted the ground. I was terrified. Some people continued to screech, heeding for help. I knocked on my neighbor’s door, but there’s nothing inside. The noises were getting clear and vibrant, and a scavenging mouth almost got my arm. I dodged. That was the time I saw the eyes of the person who was about to eat me. No, he wasn’t a human anymore. He was more like a dead that woke up from the depths of hell. It was a zombie.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

I won’t believe in this shitty zombie apocalypse! I ain’t gonna die… not here… not now.

I ran a course, looking for safe zones, but where? The only safe place I knew was my home, but I left the door open and the infected biters were inside. I continued running for my life, nothing to think except for my own safety. When I reached the crossing point in front of the hospital, it was more dangerous, not that I expected. The biters were part of a horde. I saw a man running, too, but it was too late. He was caught. The biters tore him apart and ate his insides. I could not move. My legs became a solid gold bar. This is the end of me. I knelt. As the biters were on their way to slaughter me, I accepted the fact that it was my fate to die at that instant, so I closed my eyes.

Five.

Six.

Seven.

Eight.

Nine.

My phone rang. The alarm clock yelled at me and I got up. It was a dream. Let me change it. It was a nightmare, something that ought to be real. Maybe I am a little tired at work. It was 5 o’clock in the morning, and I didn’t want to sleep so I just read another chapter of a novel before taking a shower and before going to school.

The days were so fast in passing and the final exams got advanced. I had to give my students alternative ways where I could still teach them using online tools. After the exam week, the teachers were ready to compute the grades. I have 24 students in my advisory class, STEM 11-B. When I completed all their marks in different subject areas, I asked them to stay to wait for the results of those who will be part of the awardees in the upcoming recognition. The result was 18 out of 24 learners, not bad. I guess I must give more time in reaching out to my remaining six.

After a day, news reports were aired on TV telling about the massive outbreak of the COVID 19, a virus that is somehow a type of the Novel Corona where it attacks a person’s immune system, especially the lungs. At first, it was not regarded as something to be feared of, but it cascaded quickly as it reached 64 infected Filipinos for three days. Day after day, more and more infected were reported, and some of those who traveled outside the country were considered as patients under monitoring and investigation. The President of the Philippines declared an enhanced community quarantine. Only one person per household was allowed to go out and secure a quarantine pass and to buy the necessary supplies for the family.

I was not able to go home to my family because of the strict implementation of the 24/7 curfew and regulated transportation.

At that juncture, my nerves were warning me something to happen in the next days. I didn’t know why I got so cautious in a way that I had this need to warn the others. I thought of my nightmare before. There is no possibility that it can happen. Not today. Not now.

However, my instincts became more habitual to give me caveats, or is it because no one will believe me when I tell everybody that this COVID may bring an even greater catastrophe? I do not know. The world is full of diseases, so as fake news.

For one week I stayed alone at home. I did a lot of things to entertain myself, also kept myself posted from the updates about this outbreak. Some people in social media think that this virus is made by mad scientists to intentionally wipe out a portion of the world population, but I don’t think it’s truer than what others believe. At this point, it is arduous to tell what is true and what is not.

For the second week of the enhanced community quarantine, I have come across more articles posted by the NGC and now, by the Discovery Channel. I charted some connected topics, then, using my account in PESTRON (a secret group that works for CIA), I have seen a piece of information that made my heart beat faster. Wuhan City in the province of Hubei in China kept a piece of information that was outsourced by some hackers. That place was not really safe at all! The news that stated that Wuhan has already recovered was just for a show. There were reported cases where infected people of the COVID 19 possessed an aggressive behavior. They lost control of themselves and started attacking people.

Right now, I have to think. My previous nightmare will never be a helpful Intel that I can share with my co-workers in PESTRON. There must be something I can do to warn people, but I cannot let my identity be divulged.

I waited for the right moment, but that moment may be too late, so I began to call my family to tell them to find a place where they can be safe, but they did not believe me. They said I was just panicking. It was hard. I guess giving them information meant a joke to them, even my co-teachers didn’t believe me. The only ones who could decipher what I say were my students.

Boom! It was the cue.

Déjà vu.

The night was filled with the screams of people, dashing and jostling through the crowded streets. It was so chaotic that dusty smoke ventured everywhere. I could not fathom what was happening. I was trembling. I saw the others lying down while their bloods painted the ground. I was terrified. Some people continued to screech, heeding for help. I knocked on my neighbor’s door, but there’s nothing inside. The noises were getting clear and vibrant, and a scavenging mouth almost got my arm. I dodged. That was the time I saw the eyes of the person who was about to eat me. No, he wasn’t a human anymore. He was more like a dead that woke up from the depths of hell. It was a zombie.

But this time, I will make it right. I am not going to die. In my dream, the crossing point near the hospital was a hazardous vicinity, so I must not go there. I have to save people who could come with me anywhere safe, but there was no one to be found. Every direction was hounded by biters. A total lockdown, after all, consumed a devastating threat. But wait, if I could get into my house, I could grab some knives as my weapons. Yes, I need to run faster!

Eureka! I found the knives and cut my palm. It bled and I felt pain. It means that I wasn’t dreaming. I went out, navigating my path towards a vacant road. The biters were not so fast to move so I can outrun them. With all the data I have accessed from CIA, I know where to go and what to do, but selfishness wasn’t my armor, I need to go and find the others. I need to know how to end this plague, this game to be played. (To be continued…)