When the homework stopped coming, the teachers stopped grading
---
ONE: The Homework Plague
No one remembers exactly when it started.
Some say it began with a missing worksheet.
Others say it was the first student who turned in blank paper.
Either way, once the homework stopped, the world ended.
Schools collapsed first.
Then neighborhoods.
Then cities.
The teachers changed.
Without fresh homework to feed on, they became something else-thin, starving things with sharpened limbs and hollow eyes, roaming the ruins in search of completed assignments.
And children.
The children who forgot their homework never came back.
The children who left problems blank came back wrong.
Groaning.
Wandering.
Still clutching unfinished packets.
They were called the Zombie Students.
And the most infamous of them all was Montez.
Or as everyone now called him:
Zontez.
---
TWO: Sara's Basement
It was the third month of the Homework Plague.
Sara's basement was one of the last safe places left.
The five survivors sat in silence.
Skylar was vomiting into a trash can.
Sara covered her mouth to stop herself from gagging.
Jay cried quietly.
Kali stared drunkenly into nothing.
Kaylani sat half-conscious, too high to care.
And in the far corner sat Zombie Montez, groaning softly.
Then came the knocking.
Knock.
No one moved.
Knock.
Jay whimpered.
Knock.
Everyone knew.
The Homework Collector.
Then silence.
A long, cold silence.
Then-
CRASH.
Glass exploded inward.
A skeletal hand reached through and unlocked the basement door.
It creaked open.
Mr. Anderson stepped inside.
Or what had once been Mr. Anderson.
His face was scarred.
His skin stretched tight across bone.
His eyes glowed with dull red hunger.
A medieval sword hung across his back.
An assault rifle rested in his hands.
His voice came wet and hollow:
"You didn't put the homework in the bin."
Nobody answered.
Zontez groaned.
Mr. Anderson turned his head sharply toward the sound.
Then back to the students.
"Well."
He raised the rifle.
"There's always next year."
The gunfire lasted seconds.
The screaming ended faster.
When the smoke cleared, everyone was dead.
Everyone except Zontez.
The bullets had passed harmlessly through him.
Mr. Anderson sighed.
"I'm guessing there's no getting rid of you."
Zontez blinked slowly.
Then groaned.
Mr. Anderson turned and walked into the night.
He had farther to go.
---
THREE: The Cave of Grading
Ash fell endlessly from the dead sky.
Mr. Anderson walked through it for days.
Zontez followed.
Always groaning.
Always there.
Eventually he found the cave.
Inside sat Dr. Abuga.
Or what remained of him.
His limbs were too long.
His fingers had fused into sharpened grading pens dripping red ink.
Stacks of homework had merged into his flesh.
Before him sat two piles of fresh assignments.
Food.
Mr. Anderson collapsed beside him and began grading immediately.
Red ink scratched violently across paper.
The sound was desperate.
Hungry.
After a long silence, Mr. Anderson spoke.
"How many gave you homework?"
Dr. Abuga answered through crackling paper.
"Not enough."
Mr. Anderson shuddered.
Then came the groan.
"Grgrhhgh-"
Zontez stood in the cave entrance.
Dr. Abuga recoiled.
"What is that?"
Mr. Anderson didn't even look up.
"Zontez."
"Zontez?"
"Don't question it."
Dr. Abuga stared.
The zombie stared back.
And somewhere deep in the cave walls, unseen children scratched equations into stone.
---
FOUR: The Testing Facility
At the edge of the ruined city stood the Scientology building.
No one knew why the teachers chose it.
Maybe because the screams didn’t echo.
Inside, fluorescent lights hummed eternally.
Rows of desks stretched endlessly.
Each desk held a chained student.
Some alive.
Some dead.
Some halfway between.
Zombie children slumped in their seats, forced upright by rusted chains.
Above them hung posters:
SHOW YOUR WORK
TRY YOUR BEST
NO TALKING
At the front stood Mr. Anderson and Dr. Abuga.
Between them groaned a machine built from welded calculators and rusted desks.
The State Tester.
Mr. Anderson's jaw now unhinged when he spoke.
Rows of sharpened pencils lined his mouth.
"Begin."
The machine roared to life.
Packets slammed onto every desk.
Chains tightened.
A timer lit the wall:
MCAP TESTING SESSION: 8 HOURS REMAINING
Children wrote through tears.
If they stopped, the chains shocked them.
If they screamed, another packet printed.
If they failed-
the floor opened beneath them.
And they disappeared below.
Then David stopped writing.
---
FIVE: David the Star
Weeks later, starving and desperate, Mr. Anderson and Dr. Abuga searched for homework.
Their supply was gone.
Soon they would go feral.
Then they saw it.
A glowing house at the end of an empty road.
Taped neatly to the door:
DAVID'S HOMEWORK
Perfectly completed.
Every answer flawless.
Impossible.
Mr. Anderson lunged for it.
The door clicked open.
Darkness waited inside.
Then a voice emerged:
"Show your work."
They froze.
Something stepped forward.
David.
But wrong.
His body was folded notebook paper.
Equations crawled across his skin.
His eyes were black calculator screens flashing:
ERROR
In his hands he held a packet labeled:
MR. ANDERSON'S HOMEWORK
Question One:
"Why did you stop assigning us problems?"
Mr. Anderson screamed.
Dr. Abuga stumbled backward.
Then the darkness behind David moved.
The chained students emerged.
Hundreds of them.
The children from below the testing facility.
Their eyes glowed.
Their mouths moved together.
And they whispered:
"There's always next year."
David smiled.
The house shook.
And the grading began.
---
EPILOGUE: Zontez
Far away, under dead stars, Zontez wandered alone.
He groaned softly into the night.
Behind him, somewhere in the darkness, came the scratching of pencils.
Ahead of him, classroom lights flickered on one by one across the ruined world.
The school year was beginning again.
And this time-
attendance was mandatory...