Tick-tock-tick-tock-tick-tock!

The man looked at the clock as it ticked itself to its rhythm. He wondered why and how must it be in the most damned time of all places. 'Too early, it's just too early!' he thought as he opened his gold-plated, brass-trimmed, circle pendant as he gazed at an image of his beautiful wife. Now she lies in the hospital after collapsing due to overwork; the timing is something he truly hated. He sat on the chair and curled his torso on the desk as his arms covered his ears. Once again he lost his composure, once again none can comfort Jim nor cheer, he's had it. And he's had enough of it, for the last couple of days the trauma is back. It's all coming back and there's no stopping it.

He had the stomach to fight it but not the stomach to see it unfold right in front of him. For in front of him lies the revelation: of the 30 or more students in class 549, only 20 remained and their numbers dwindled with each passing day. His memories haunted him and his passion has dried out. Years of investment only to be lost in a single event; five students have died in this class in their homes as they slept, All that hard work in teaching and creating a generation resilient than his' lost through an enemy so terrible that all efforts to combat it didn't make sense.

More demoralizing is that they were barely ready! Its been a long time since the last plague that despite their mettle they already doubt it. Not to mention the latest addition to their problems, those new strains. And all he can do is wait, just wait 'till everything unfolds; it's what he hated the most. However, as he looked back once again at the scattered remnants of his class, he found at least a glimmer of hope for within the eyes of each and nearly every male student he had left, he saw himself. Unlike the females who were ranging from composed and near oblivious to shivering their wits out of them, the males were all neither of those for they were in between. Ready yet doubtful, sad but still composed and tired yet willful, all of these brought him a glimmer of hope just as it had when he was younger, just looking at the unforgiving yet saddened eyes of his beloved mentor gave him hope that despite the hell that's to come in the end those who suffer it are all the same; they're all afraid, but they won't hold back from the fighting just as he won't let his heart skip a beat till his wife is safe.

A gush of wind rushed towards his head from above, clearing his mind and giving him a sense of relief. Yet he did not cherish it, for he drew his zapper and discharged the entire mag with a 15-second streak of light. Blood flood towards his balding head and so he withdrew from the chair and wiped his face clean of lurker blood. He took one last breath before deciding his next move as the entire class sans the new ones sat in attention. His eyes looked behind him as panic nearly overtook his senses after hearing some mechanical drilling behind him.

"Draw your bloody zappers!!!" He screamed to the last of his lungs as the drilling got louder and louder. Just as a crack in the wall formed, one of the students punched the alarm button as the rest took positions and prepared for the worst.

***

The head of security was sipping his brand of wild tea when he noticed the alarm to class 549 light-up whereupon he assigned some of the patrolling guards to assist. And just as he was about to drink a mouthful, dozens of alarms were blazing in the confines of both his tablet and the Holoviewers on his office. He discharged his mouthful of tea on a wall so violently that the nearest officer near him jumped as he ordered a general evacuation.

In a heartbeat, the worst came like nothing just happened. The campus erupted into a warzone as students and staff fought off wave after wave of attacks in the rooms hallways and even the gym itself. High amounts of radiation, projectiles, and even melee weapons screamed the calls of war as flesh and blood littered the floor. Lurkers in their hundreds of all kinds and sizes seized the initiative or their initiative; drowning themselves in the thick wall of death that every hallway, room, or floor has to offer. But just as the fight seemed to turn to the side of the gritty Harkovites, hundreds upon hundreds more of the mindless monstrosities rushed from outside, overwhelming the security forces stationed there. It was a messy sight as the small but fearsome detachment of veteran guards and eight-legged armed avtomats fought a fighting retreat towards the buildings of the campus. Seasoned veterans, the best equipped and best-trained men in the entire campus fought on and fell back as they faced a wave of unending flesh and blood; nothing could be done.

Inside, the students and the staff were mopping up that huge mess that took nearly ten people in half an hour when they heard the sound of heavy steps not of the enemy but theirs instead, screaming profanities and commands amid the death and destruction that they faced. One line of men and avtomats took a stand and took as much as they can for the next line to take a position and fall back in an orderly manner doing the same thing over and over again until they met the line of less experienced guards take the fight for them. The whole University that once housed nearly thirty thousand staff and students was now littered in collapsed columns, blasted floors, and broken walls.

The entire population retreated towards the center of the entire campus, the school coliseum, and made entire squares and scattered lines for the sake of repelling an attack. By the time those guards entered the domed building, nearly thirty people were killed and by the grace of their gods, it wasn't too bad. And all went quiet, too quiet as everyone held their breath for the sake of their hearing. Minutes passed when still nothing was heard, not a single drill, critter nor even step was heard and the entire pack was unnerved. Never have they heard nor knew a sense of retreat in the face of this bewildering foe, never had they known it to possess the ability to think of a way to make them restless. In the darkness of their dour and gloomy masks, they grew impatient and more impatient as time went by.

"Chief?" The President asked the Chief of Security through his earpiece.

" Yes sir?" Came the shivering reply of the most respected security personnel in the entire city.

" This is bad, they never acted like this before. This is new, we can't tell what's going on. We need intel."

" I can't just send somebody outside, we lost twenty men already. The avtomats aren't an option either, we only had five left."

" What can we do now chief? You're the expert!"

" We can only wait, everybody's dug in, if we even think of trying to abandon this position we most likely might get decimated like what happened to those in the city a few years ago!"

" If that's the case I might as well get a headcount." He turned around to face those behind him forming a ten-man circle. " You there! Kid in the front, start a headcount!" The President commanded.

" Yes sir!" The kid replied.

"1..2...3..4...5..6..7..8..9..10..............................5510..5511.....5555...5556" The last count came.

" Sir! 5556 is the last number, Mister President Sir!" A wimpy voice came out trying to sound fierce!

He reviewed the last attendance sheets and after a few calculations grasped the top of his cranium and said: "Schiesse! We are one man short! .....Who's missing?"

Silence, Silent the crowd went as the eerily otherworldly coliseum of dark colors made sounds akin to that of ghosts as winds from outside rushed into the clearing of that dome.

" Bubi! Bubi stand up! You fuckin' pidar!" An annoyed voice came which many around could not hear.

" Bubi! Stand up! Do you wanna get killed!" A female voice came urging the boy who sat down with his hands wrapping his head as he shivered in fear.

" I can't take it! I can't take it for god's sake! This is too much! Too much!!!" The boy said crying in his mask.

" Just get the hell up and be a man already!!!" The female voice once again asserted as nearly everyone's attention was drawn towards them.

" Nyettttttttttt!!!!!!!! I can't take it!!! I saw him die Rika! I saw him bleed in the hallways nearing the stairs leading towards the second floor! I saw him surrounded as we fell back with his guts impaled on an unearthly thing!!!" He started screaming and stressing like a man suffering PTSD.

" Who Bubi? Who?"

" Oh no! You can't be serious! No wonder why he was missing!" Pyotr exclaimed as his bladder made him scream as he nearly pissed his pants; muffled by his mask.

The entire crowd went silent as they thought about who just died and what could happen next. Their questions were answered when a student with tattered clothes and his entire body covered in blood and dirt came carrying a huge lurker head and another head, that of a human in a hood. His upper body was clothed in his tattered uniform, missing the sleaves to his left hand, a huge hole akin to that made by a thrust of a crab in his right abdomen where an entire portion of both undershirt and coat was missing, his pants were all tattered with holes the size of baseballs to bowling balls apparent in below his groin.

"Coast is clear! Follow me!" He commanded as he allowed his message to be transmitted to nearly everyone in the entire dome.

Speechless and confused, the entire group stood still as if waiting for the next wave. Disappointed after seeing this dreich atmosphere he casually walked out of the coliseum and emerged a few minutes later carrying a wet towel and some men in dark uniforms sending the entire group in shock as he finished wiping his face with the said towel, revealing his scratch filled face. Putting a disappointed look and his mask on he told them calmly once again that the coast is clear and evacuation vehicles are outside waiting for them. However the university president is not very trusting, he can't see his face clearly yet, only that it seemed too familiar.

"And who are you? Might I ask concerning this matter?"

"It's me, Mr. President! It's Kempf."

"How could we trust you? Many saw him impaled on the way here!"

Sensing that he must prove his point by action and action alone, he strolled briskly towards the President and took his hand, placing it near one of the large holes on his body. The president's eyes went wide as he felt to differing textures: one that of skin and that of recovering flesh.

"I'm not your run of the mill human sir, remember that?"

Just as he finished, he strolled towards the exit as if it was just the usual affair. Noticing something familiar, Danya followed the student and the line got longer and longer as everyone started following each other like a herd of cattle. The sun shined brightly as a breeze swept the face of one of the students as they exit the building. Two electronic sounds were heard as they turned their head to witness one of the men take the life out of a squirming lurker a few meters away from them. He was right, the coast is indeed clear no monster in sight.

He boarded one of the tracked lozenge-like transports as the others followed, and after a brief while the vehicles were moving fast towards the city. A hand reached out and touched his face, he looked and saw an adamant Katya as she followed the contours of his face. Tears sprang from her eyes as she grabbed him for an embrace. "Thank god! I thought you were dead!" She cried and cried as he caressed her head and gave her pat on the back asking her to stop crying and assuring her that everything will be alright.

Danya looked at his hip and asked: "What's the head for? It's barbaric!"

" This is the idiot who directed the attack at the school, too bad he's a svoloch, too easy to dispose of." He took the head off his belt and with a knife drove it to the top of the skull and ran it down the brainstem before breaking it open with his hands as he pulled a weird-looking microchip out of the brain. He held it out for everyone close enough to see and moved towards the president's seat. He gave the chip to the man and stated: " All we need to know is found in here this chip, take good care of it, sir!"

" You can count on me, Andrey!" And just as he was about to leave he added: "Andrey! Keep surprising me every day!" And Andrey replied with a salute and a smirk on his face before proceeding.

Taking his tattered shirt off, he tried to put a medical-paste on the damaged tissues but found himself unable as the pain from open wounds on his back and right shoulder started to kick in from neglect. Seeing this Katya was quick to react as he nearly collapsed on his right arm and caught him before he could drop. Placing him in her seat, she applied the paste as his face curled in pain and relaxed in relief. Turning his head towards the back of the vehicle, he noticed an odd form at the transparent circular windows, something familiar, A 100-foot lurker charging towards them. He charged towards the window for a better look but Katya, Danya, and the pain kept him in place. Feeling his gut told him to do so, he touched his wristwatch and uttered words so cryptic that everyone was in shambles trying to catch even a single word out of it. That is until they saw what he truly meant, in the small confine of the slits and windows a blinding white light emanated as if that tender loving light from the break of dawn.

He relieved himself as he sat with his back straight, Just as another blinding white light flew past him into the next wall of steel. With a tired and dying face, he smiled at those looking at his smug and handsome face as he said in a twisted chilling manner:

"Samsara."