Julia was in her room when Cole, Sunny and Silvio arrived. She was sketching hearts, stars, flowers, and leaves on a sheet of scrap paper. Silvio was carrying two folding chairs.

“Good morning!” said Sunny

“Morning,” said Julia

Julia was wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants.

“You look a lot better,” said Silvio

“I do?” said Julia

Cole was struggling to carry some boxes.

“What’s all this, Cole?” said Julia

“Food,” said Cole

Julia cracked her knuckles and laid down. She was way better, but still weak.

“I thought I told you to just get a slice of cake…” said Julia

“Huh? That’s impractical and completely illogical,” said Cole

“That’s true…”

Cole sighed as he put the boxes on the table.

“Silvio’s box is in here too,” said Cole

Cole did the hidden door spell using his wand. Julia’s hidden door appeared in a sea of magic sparkles and opened with bass and piano music.

“Wait, what was that?!” said Sunny

“Interesting use of magic,” said Silvio

Cole carried all the boxes inside save for one.

“You guys are acting as if you’ve never seen a hidden door until now,” said Julia

Julia watched as he put the boxes into the fridge.

“That’s because they actually haven’t ever seen a hidden door,” answered Cole from behind

Julia sat up and looked at Silvio and Sunny. Sunny was dressed in a t-shirt and jeans. Silvio was also dressed in a casual way.

“Wait, where do you keep your fridge and…” said Julia

“We have a shared kitchen,” said Silvio

Cole slammed the white fridge door. Julia heard a piercing sound, like something shattering into pieces, followed by the sound of something crashing onto the floor.

“Cole?” said Julia and Silvio in unison

“I’m okay, but…”

“You broke something, didn’t you?” said Silvio

“No, but…” said Cole

Julia heard Cole gasp.

“There’s something horribly wrong with this place,” said Cole

Silvio ran inside.

“Everything okay, Cole?” asked Silvio

Sunny was looked at them in the distance while she was biting her nails.

“Get me my wand please, Sunny,” said Julia

Sunny handed her the wand and continued to stare with widened eyes.

“How the hell did this happen?” said Silvio

“Silvio, we all have to leave this place. Julia can’t stay here for a moment longer,”

“Look, there’s more of them!” said Silvio

“Do something! You’re the defender,” said Cole

Upon hearing this, Julia froze. Something horrible must have happened. Her mind was blank, until she tried to think of a spell to help them. The two of the guys were about to exit the room, when the door slammed shut and locked itself. Loud thuds came from the other side, and Sunny tried unlocking the door, and then the lights went out.

Julia tried to remember her spell construction classes. There were screams from both sides, but Julia was quiet as she spun her wand around and was about to recite a spell. This doesn’t mean didn’t want to yell out for help. She controlled herself.

“Bright light, show us a path for defense or fight,” said Julia

The alarm in the room sounded again.

Nothing happened, Julia started hyperventilating and the pains across her body grew worse.

“Warning: The DTCA has infiltrated the system. All students are urged to stay indoors. If you are outdoors, please stand near the designated signposts marked with H-L-P. I repeat...”

Sparks flew out of Julia’s wand, and lit those two rooms. The bright light made them fade. Julia opened her eyes. Julia saw her friends as she was being held in place way above them, by a series of running vines. The wand was still in her hand.

“Light-type shield activated,” spoke a voice in a robotic voice

“What? Why would you use your own health to activate a shield? Why Julia, why?” said Cole

“Wait, what? You know what this means?!” said Silvio

“She’s already suffered one attack from the DTCA. One more, and this means…” said Cole

Silvio shook Cole’s body.

“Let’s do something already!” said Silvio

The two of them nodded.

Cole waved his wand.

“Let me wield at this hour, and change this shield’s source of power,” said Cole

At once, Cole was held in place as Julia was falling. Silvio darted across and caught Julia in his arms.

“Take care of the DTCA!” said Cole

“What about you?” said Silvio

“Don’t worry about me, you idiot!” said Cole

Silvio nodded. Julia felt so ill, she couldn’t utter a word.

“Dark-type shield activated.”

Silvio placed Julia near Sunny.

“Take care of her,” he said

Sunny watched Julia’s movements as Silvio pulled out something from his pocket. It looked like a flash drive. He flipped a switch, and it transformed into a box-cutter sword in the blink of an eye.

“How did that happen? I thought he’s not a magic user,” said Julia

“Oh, that’s a sword-in-pocket. Only defense people can use them. They’re charmed by someone else as far as I know,” said Sunny

They were walking corpses that wreaked of a rotten smell.

“Zombie-type DTCA,” mumbled Silvio

He took another device and it transformed into another box-cutter sword. One by one, Silvio chopped the zombies into pieces. Blood squirted out. The zombies let out groans of agony The sight of it made Julia disgusted. He was ruthless, as he sliced into every bit of flesh and bone with great force, with sweat trickling down his face.

“Ha!” said Silvio, cutting the last zombie into half

Silvio was panting.

The pieces soon evaporated into a vomit-inducing stench. They all coughed.

“Something seems off, those zombies were too weak,” said Silvio

“Cole!” screamed Julia

Silvio looked behind. The chopped pieces had merged in irregular forms, and Cole began to fall right into the place where they were all merging.

“No!” said Silvio

Julia waved her wand and said, “Deep thoughts disintegrate!”

The pieces turned to powder were swept away by the wind as they all held their breaths due to the toxic smell. They returned to the dark room, and the lights switched back on as Julia woke up. Cole, Silvio and Sunny opened their eyes as they were on the ground.

“What was that?” said Cole, coughing

“I don’t know!” said Sunny

“We ought to report this case to the authorities,” said Cole

“I’ll do that. Silvio, you take Cole and Julia to the Medical Centre.” Said Sunny