Zombies!
Chapter 1:
The grand opening of the Marshall-Edmonton aboveground Healing/emergency help center in Shamsdale Maine (or, as it's abbreviated: the MEAHEHC) was supposed to be a significant moment for Foaly. In a way, it was. Foaly had designed, proposed, and regulated the entire project. In fact, he was to be there that very morning, before the grand opening and presentation to the Fairy counsel. As there was no great hurry, he took the underground train, it went under the bottom of the ocean. Foaly was riding the (aptly named) "Ireland-United States Train".
Foaly was halfway through the Pacific, and had been trying for some time to prepare what was going to be his impromptu speech. Leave it to Foaly to prepare for an impromptu speech. Actually, he had been trying to edit most of his jokes. He had to be very careful when addressing the Counsel directly. (It would be his head if he offended anyone.) However, he had a terrible headache. Centaurs weren't meant to be underground, not even Foaly, who felt most comfortable there. Centaurs don't have the adaptation powers that fairies have, and being several miles below the surface, (he's usually only a kilometer, or two) Gave him a headache. He saved his document on his CPC (compact personal computer) took two aspirin, and fell asleep.
Foaly was awoken two hours later by Holly short.
"Holly?" Foaly said with a start, "Why are you- Where am I? Did I miss my stop?"
"No," Holly answered, "You're in Maine."
"Well, what are you doing here?"
"You called me this morning, remember?"
"How did you get here so quickly?"
"Hummingbirds." Holly pointed to the contraption on her back.
"You still have those?" inquired Foaly, with a hint of indignation.
"Yeah. I still have all of my LEP equipment." Holly told him.
"Yes, I know, and I'm glad- but those are Opal Koboi's invention." Foaly explained in a most casual voice (though Holly could tell he was clearly trying to make her feel guilty of not using the wings her best friend made her).
"Yeah, but it's not like they're cursed or anything, remember, you fixed this pair?" Holly reminded him.
"But only for your immediate safety, and the ones I made are better!"
"Oh?" Holly asked, losing patience, "have you ever used them?"
"I have a pair of my own, yes. It wouldn't fit you, because it's neither your size nor shape, and I haven't used them for above-ground flying…"
Holly stopped. Foaly had a counter-argument to everything, and took it all to the grave… it got pretty annoying sometimes… but when you watch him arguing with someone else (like he used to do with Commander Root) it was freaking hilarious. To Holly, anyway…
Then, Foaly's communicator watch stared beeping. ('cause everyone has a communicator watch- get with the times, man!) and a contracting Dwarf, with a nametag that said "Shawn" appeared on the 1 by 1 inch, 100 digital quality screen.
"We have a Shituation, here, sir!" Shawn shouted "We may need backup!"
"What is it? What's wrong?" Inquired Foaly incredulously. "May I remind you that we have no room for error, …Shawn! If something goes so wrong that it's noticed, then we'll both be out of work."
"I catch ya', Foaly" Shawn said. "It's just one a' the Construction Dwarves… Joey, the plumber. Anyway, he got this bite, an' now he's running around, in a haze tryin' ta' bite anyone around him. We've locked him in this room in the hospital. He hasn't tried to get out or anything. Still just stumblin' around…"
Foaly's eyes widened, and his face lost what little coloration it had to begin with.
"H-has he… bitten anybody?"
This was when Holly and Shawn started getting creeped out. Foaly could have been over-reacting, he had been under a lot of stress… but then again, maybe he wasn't…
"No…" he replied, "Not that I know of, anyway… um, are you alright?"
Foaly suddenly regained his senses, and fully woke-up. He turned to Holly.
"This isn't a joke, is it?" He had known Holly to do these sorts of things in the past, to either catch him off guard, or just to see the look on his face.
"Well… if it is a joke, then it's on both of us." Holly told him.
"All of us," said Shawn "I saw the guy with my own eyes… from the other side of the glass, of course."
Foaly Gulped. He had a bad feeling about this. He booted his CPC (which is a lot like a cross between a palm pilot and a laptop… only it's much better, 'cause Foaly made it.) and opened the hospital's camera feed.
"What room did you say he was in?"
"I didn't say, but he's in room 209 on the second floor… and apart from myself and the officers guarding the room, he's the only one in the building."
Foaly had begun an activity check 20 seconds before Shawn had told him the room number. The data had surfaced and soon as he finished his sentence and, sure enough, the only activity hotspot in the building was room 209 on the second floor. Foaly zoomed in on the Dwarf, and ran a brainwave scan, a circulatory scan, and a repertory scan on the subject...
"… uh-oh…" he whispered.
"What?" asked Holly, "What's wrong?"
Foaly slowly moved his eyes from the screen to meet Holly's. He looked her straight in the eye and said clear, moderately-toned voice:
"We've got Zombies."
Author Comments: I apologize for the crappiness of this chapter, and humbly ask your forgiveness. But I also ask for your comments. And your suggestions. As the summary says, this is sort of like Resident evil: Apocalypse, in the sense that it has the T-Virus and the fact that the citizens are "Trapped" behind the city walls, and the fact that they have a limited amount of time to escape before The Atomic Bomb is dropped on them. There will not be Alice, Nemesis, that other woman, that other guy, that girl, those other guys, or the guy that died… nope, they won't be here… There won't even be the totally wicked-cool black guy that totally kicked ass… I'm sorry…
Foaly, Holly, and all characters of the Artemis Fowl Book series are copyright Eoin Colfer, and should be treated as such. I have tried my hardest to capture their reactions to the situations that I make them suffer through based on the descriptions that Mr. Colfer has put in his books.