A crescent moon hung over the city of Hillwood on Halloween night as a blustery wind blew a patch of autumn leaves along the city street. On the sidewalk a tall, blonde haired woman in a ghostly white flowing dress walked hand in hand with a young man in a suit with a fedora atop his oddly shaped head. Dark circles of eye makeup surrounded the bright blue orbs of the woman as she looked over at the man, laughing at a joke he had just told her.
"Oh, Arnold. Stop it! You're going to make me laugh so hard that tears are going to come out of my eyes, then I'll look really scary! On second thought, maybe that wouldn't be so bad…" Arnold laughed at that idea.
"Dressing up as the ghost bride is terrifying enough, Helga. You know you're going to freak Harold out when he sees you at the Halloween dance. Remember how he wet himself in the graveyard when we were kids?" Helga nodded between raucous cackles and snorts of glee.
"How could I forget?! That was a pretty good night," she flashed a grin over at him. "I have to say that you look pretty dapper in your suit. 1920's gangster, right?"
"Mhm! Gerald came up with it! We're going to look pretty suave, don't you think?" He did a little tip of his hat as Helga nodded in affirmation. As they came upon the street corner, they noticed a man stumbling about. Helga squinted in order to make sure she wasn't seeing things, but this was no trick of the mind. The man was coming towards them and if she heard correctly, sounded like he was groaning and moaning.
"Uh, Arnold, maybe we should cross the street now?" she squeaked out in a shaky voice while tugging on his arm. Arnold had also seen the man and a look of concern etched itself across his face.
"We should go help him," Arnold countered before letting go of Helga's hand and darting towards the man. He hardly heard her shriek his name in fear as he quickly approached the stumbling man. There was no way Arnold could resist helping someone in need, it was simply his nature.
"Uh, sir? You need some help there? A hospital maybe?" Arnold inquired upon reaching him. The man only moaned in response and lunged forward towards Arnold. "Whoa!" yelped Arnold as he lurched back to dodge the man. Helga grasped his arm, having ran up behind him, and helped him regain his balance. The two teens looked back over at the man and instantly their jaws dropped as their eyes widened in horror. Standing beneath the street light was the man, except he wasn't much of a man. His flesh was extremely mottled and appeared to be decaying and it looked like he had lost several teeth. Deep brown hair laid matted atop his head and his clothes were torn and frayed at the edges and his eyes held a hungry look in them.
A guttural yell bellowed from his throat before he recommenced staggering towards the couple. "Can we run now?" Helga meekly pleaded. Arnold gulped and nodded, then grabbed on her arm and dashed across the street as fast as his legs could carry him. They ran until they reached the high school two blocks later, already thumping from the heavy bass beats of the music being played at the dance.
"W-what was that?" Helga stammered out between breaths after they had ensured they had not been followed by the man.
Arnold shook his head. "I don't know. He definitely appeared to be homeless. Maybe he has a mental illness?" he suggested while leaning against the stair railing in front of the school entrance.
"You don't think…?"
Arnold met Helga's eyes, then widened in realization as to what she was thinking. He laughed nervously before responding, "No I don't think he was a zombie. You've been watching too many horror movies lately, Helga!" Grabbing her hand, he gave her a reassuring squeeze. "Zombies don't exist," he said soothingly before pulling her into the school and towards the dance.
"Arnold! My main man!" Gerald in his matching 1920's gangster outfit greeted as the two came in sight. Arnold and Gerald did their trademark handshake as Phoebe, dressed as a fantastical elf complete with pointed prosthetic ears, rushed up and gave Helga a tight hug. Helga was still not used to the fact that Phoebe's glasses no longer pressed up against her now that Phoebe wore contact lenses.
"I'm so glad you made it!" Phoebe squealed before breaking apart from her friend. She gasped as she saw Helga's pale nervously smiling face. "My gosh! You don't look well. Everything okay?"
"We had a bit of a scare with a homeless man on the way here, but everything's fine now," Arnold explained as he wrapped his arm around his girlfriend. Phoebe eyed Helga, who nodded and sighed.
"Yea, it's no big deal now. Pfft, Helga G. Pataki is scared of nothing!" Phoebe appeared satisfied with this response and flashed a kind smile in return.
"Well, we should probably head in," Phoebe piped. The two couples entered the high school's gymnasium to find their classmates all bouncing in a throng to the latest chart topper. Helga groaned in disgust.
"Must it always be some rap song?" she complained.
"Aw, come on, Helga! Loosen up! You're at a high school dance!" Gerald winked at her before taking off into the crowd with Phoebe. A sigh emanated from Helga as she crossed her arms across her chest.
"We don't have to dance right now if you don't want to. You know I'm not one for this kind of music either." He grinned over at her. She smiled back in relief, then spotted Harold off in the distance in a ham costume.
"Oh, I have an idea," she mischievously informed Arnold. He looked over to where she gestured and instantly knew what she wanted to do. He nodded once with a glint of roguishness in his green eyes. Ever since he had started dating Helga, he had occasionally partaken in her pranks. He had found it exhilarating to break away from his good guy self every once in a while, especially when Helga was involved since she made it so fun. Casually he strode across the gym and tapped Harold on the shoulder.
"Hey, Harold! How's your Halloween going? Anything scare you yet?"
Harold scoffed at this then boasted, "Anything scare me? Oh gee, Ah-nowld, let me think. Nothing! 'Cause absolutely nothing scares me!" His football teammates that surrounded him laughed along with Harold's boisterous cackle while Arnold smirked.
"Sure about that?" Arnold challenged. "Because if I remember correctly, a certain ghost sure freaked you out when we were kids."
"You shut your mouth about that right now!" Harold menacingly yelled as he leaned forward until he was nose to nose with Arnold. "You are never to mention that to anyone!"
"Okay, but you might want to tell her that as well." The color from Harold's face drained upon hearing this. Gulping, he slowly turned around and immediately let out a high pitched scream. Standing before him was a tall figure in a ghostly white wedding dress with a veil in front of her face and an axe in her hands that appeared to be stained in blood. Everyone around him started laughing, especially when Helga removed the veil to reveal that the ghost bride was none other than her again and dropped the axe to reveal it to be nothing more than a plastic prop.
"Gee, Harold, for a guy who isn't scared of anything, you sure seemed pretty frightened by that," Helga quipped with a smirk.
Harold attempted to respond, but his face became beet red in embarrassment and he instead ran out of the gym and into the school halls. Once he had rounded the corner, he slammed his fist into a nearby locker and let out a yell of intense rage.
"Watch it! That's my locker, you know," shrieked Rhonda Wellington-Lloyd in a blonde wig and white Marilyn Monroe dress. She marched right up to him and poked the center of his chest before continuing. "You really ought to consider who's locker you're punching before doing so! I expect you'll be paying for the damages?" Harold's shoulders sagged as he meekly nodded.
"Sorry, Rhonda," he gruffly replied while looking down at the ground. Noticing that something wasn't quite right, Rhonda softened and placed her hand on Harold's shoulder comfortingly.
"Everything all right?" she inquired. He ripped his shoulder out of her grip and punched another locker. "I'll take that as a no." Harold did not turn around, refusing to meet her gaze as he did not want her to see him in this state. It was embarrassing enough that his friends had seen him like this, but he didn't want the girl he fancied to see him like this if he could help it.
"All right, if you're not going to talk to me about it, then I guess you can just mope about it out here," Rhonda scoffed in annoyance before turning around to return to the dance. She froze in her tracks for she had come face to face with the face of her second period algebra teacher, Ms. Marters, who was drooling from the side of her mouth and looking at Rhonda in a way that didn't not sit well with the young girl.
"Uh, Ms. Marters? Are you all ri-" Blood splattered across the lockers and a shrill scream emanated from Rhonda as Ms. Marters bit into her neck ferociously, tearing at her flesh. Harold whipped around and barreled down the hall into Ms. Marters, knocking her to the floor. Quickly he lunged down and picked up Rhonda in his arms. She hung limply, blood pouring out from her carotid artery on her neck.
"Rhonda! Rhonda! Stay with me!" he yelled at her while dashing down the hall and outside of the school. It was in vain though for just before he reached the main doors, her eyes had glazed over in death. Harold set her on the floor, tears pouring from his eyes while he kept murmuring her name over and over, hoping that somehow this might bring her back. He was so consumed by grief that he failed to noticed that the main doors had been barged open by an entire crowd of stumbling, groaning city dwellers. It wasn't until one was standing directly above him that he saw them. Adrenaline filled his system, causing him to leap up and sprint back to the dance.
"ZOMBIES! ZOMBIES IN THE HALL!" he shrieked out as loud as he could over the music and inane teenage chatter. Those closest to him eyed him curiously, shrugged, then returned to their conversations. Shaking his head in frustration, Harold darted over to the DJ booth and shoved the DJ down. Snatching up the microphone and turning off the music, he yelled, "ZOMBIES ARE HERE IN THIS HIGH SCHOOL RIGHT NOW! THEY JUST KILLED RHONDA AND THEY'RE COMING HERE! EVERYBODY RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!" The teens all stared at him as though he had gone crazy. Several people laughed it off and started to boo him off the stage, but it was Arnold who calmly approached Harold on the DJ podium.
"Harold? Look, I know Helga and I freaked you out earlier, but it was a joke. I'm sure there are no zombies in the sch-" A piercing cry interrupted him and he swung around to find the source. His eyes widened in horror as he saw Lila with what appeared to be a young woman chomping on her neck while another person had their teeth wrapped around her left arm. Immediately behind her in the gym doorway stood at least thirty other similarly appearing people with a hunger for flesh in their dead looking eyes. Immediately the high schoolers fell into a panic and chaos ensued in the gymnasium.
"Believe me now?!" Harold yelled before leaping off the podium and joining the crowd. Arnold couldn't believe it, he didn't want to believe it! Here it was though, the very monsters he had watched on his television screen now tearing apart his friends and gorging upon them. He didn't have much more time to ponder this turn of events for the next thing he knew, he was yanked down to the floor by his girlfriend and joined up by Gerald and Phoebe. Quickly the four friends dashed through the crowd, looking for an exit from the attack.
"I KNEW it was a zombie!" cried Helga in a panic as Phoebe slipped in a puddle of fresh blood and Gerald was nearly knocked over by a classmate in the ongoing chaotic scene. "We're not going to get out of here! We're going to die!"
"Helga! Stay with me, don't panic!" Arnold yelled over to her while squeezing her hand. He put on a brave face and looked over at her. Helga gulped down her fear and nodded, then hardened her complexion, determined to get out alive. The four of them managed to burst out into the hallway with a crowd of teens through some doors on the other side of the gym. Noticing that everyone else was headed towards the exits in the back of the school, the group followed suit. However this turned out to be a bad plan for upon rounding the corner, they discovered an even larger group of the walking dead and several of their fallen classmates with various bodily organs littering the floor and more blood than any of them had seen in their life. The teens in front of the group were quite unfortunate as they were instantly attacked by zombies that had not captured a meal yet. Immediately the remaining teens turned and headed back, the four friends splitting from the crowd and opting to go up the staircase until they reached the fourth floor and could no longer hear the horrific cries of their classmates as zombies feasted upon their flesh.
Once they had stopped, Helga lunged over a trash can and vomited while Arnold patted her back, trying to remain calm himself. Gerald and Phoebe hugged each other tightly, Phoebe softly sobbing while Gerald put on a stoic display in an attempt to be strong for his girlfriend. He had the amazing ability to hide his true feelings, especially in high stress situations.
Wiping her mouth, Helga straightened up and stated, "We need to figure out a way to get out of here without going back down. We go back down there, we're zombie dinner."
"The-there's a fire escape up here," Phoebe murmured, still in shock over the sudden turn of events.
"That's good, do you remember where?" Arnold asked in a kind, calm voice. One of the many things he had always been good at was keeping his wits about him, even in chaotic scenarios. Motioning them to follow her, Phoebe led the way down the school hall, trying her best to block out the sounds of her wounded and dying peers down below. Being as intelligent as she was, Phoebe had been placed in advanced classes and many of them took place on the highest level of the school, the fourth floor. The others had never really been on this floor, thus all hope for escape lay in the hands of the small Asian girl.
Upon approaching a door on the right near the end of the hall, Phoebe carefully pushed the handle down and creaked it open a crack. She poked her head in and scanned the room, then opened the door the rest of the way once she was sure there were no undead in there. Turning on the lights, they found themselves in a chemistry lab. It looked fairly untouched, making the teens feel a little easier about being in the room.
Quickly Phoebe headed to the other end of the room and attempted to lift open the middle window. "If I can just get this open, we can get out on the fire escape and get out of this wretched place," she said between grunts. Gerald stepped in to help her out, but between the two of them they had no success. The next thing they knew, the lights in the entire building were flickering before going completely out.
"Great! Just great!" cried Helga as she threw her arms up in frustration. "We can't get the window open, there are zombies all throughout the school, and we're trapped on the top floor! I never thought I could hate this place more than I already did, but there you g-" Arnold clapped a hand across Helga's mouth and turned her to face him, placing a finger over his mouth to shush her. The others had followed suit and all four ducked down simultaneously behind the lab counter at Arnold's direction.
Gerald looked over at Arnold inquisitively, who merely pointed over the counter in the direction of the door they had come in through. Carefully, Gerald peered over the counter and saw three zombies meandering in. He instantly crouched back down and tensed up, silently saying a prayer while clasping Phoebe's hand tightly.
Oddly enough Phoebe wasn't paralyzed in fright like the others. As they had ducked down, she had noticed a bottle of acetone had been left out on the counter. Quickly, she crawled across the floor, taking care not to make any noise.
"What are you doing?!" Gerald whispered in a barely audible voice. She merely gave him a look that told him she had a plan. He inhaled sharply, then crossed his fingers for good luck. Reaching up Phoebe snatched the bottle of acetone as well as a striker that was thankfully lying close by.
Her tiny hands rapidly twisted off the cap of the acetone bottle and tossed the entire contents directly in the path of the oncoming zombies. She then clasped the sparker tightly close to her chest and waited until the zombies were just in front of the acetone puddle. Hoping that her plan would work, she flipped around in front of the puddle and in view of the zombies. They immediately groaned loudly upon seeing her and appeared to quicken their pace. Phoebe squeezed the sparker over the puddle several times, becoming quite panicked when the puddle refused to ignite. Her eyes widened as she realized that her plan could very well fail and these could very well be her last moments. Everything around her seemed to slow down and she vaguely thought she heard Gerald crying out her name.
The explosion of flame ignited by the sparker and smell of burning bodies brought her back to the present situation. She exhaled deeply and weakly stood up as the other teens joined her, Gerald lifting her up in a tight hug.
"You are a GENIUS, Pheebs!" Helga yelled excitedly while Arnold nodded in agreement.
"You were amazing! Don't ever do that again though, 'cause I was afraid I was going to lose my woman!" Gerald managed to squeak out in a shaky voice as he regained his composure.
Phoebe beamed, flushed with excitement over her stunning success. "It was simple scien-" The celebration was cut short as a zombie burst through the flames and grabbed on to Phoebe. She screeched in fear while Gerald immediately flung himself over and attempted to free her from the zombie's grasp with Helga and Arnold close behind. It was in vain however as the zombie was too strong for the boy, even with the help of his friends. He wretched her out of Gerald's grasp and yanked Phoebe towards him before plunging his teeth into her neck, spraying Gerald with her blood. His screams were drowned out by Phoebe's terrified, pained ones, causing him to go into a frenzy and grasp on to the zombie's arm again with Arnold grabbing on to Phoebe in order to pull her away, however their adrenaline fueled strength was still not enough to free her.
The zombie raised his head back up in order to take another bite out of Phoebe, but before he could, the sharp end of a metal scoopula was plunged through his head by a ferocious looking Helga. Stunned by blow, the zombie released Phoebe before Helga kicked him back into the flames, watching maliciously and mercilessly as his body was consumed by the fire. Once she was sure that the zombie was down and that there were no others around, she dashed over to where Gerald had placed Phoebe on the ground, a pool of her own blood quickly forming around her.
"Phoebe? Phoebe? Oh God…" Gerald sobbed as he stroked her blood soaked black hair. Helga silently cried as Arnold tried his best to comfort her while also remaining vigil at Phoebe's side.
"Ger-Ger-Gerald?" Phoebe mumbled as best she could. The room was starting to spin before her and she felt incredibly weak. It hadn't taken long to dawn on her that she was dying "Promise me...promise me that you won't let me become one of them." He solemnly nodded and crossed his heart, showing that he would hold to his promise. A small smile appeared on Phoebe's face and with her last bit of strength, she reached up and cupped Gerald's face in her hand. "Aishiteru," she softly professed.
"Aishiteru," Gerald wept as he cradled Phoebe's now limp hand to his face before lowering it down next to her lifeless body. Several moments of silence passed before he slid his arms beneath her dead body and lifted her up, slowly marching her towards the flame. Before he placed her body in them to honor her wishes, he hugged her body tightly to him, warm tears falling down his face. Helga watched helplessly as he lowered her body gently in the fire. A few guttural sobs escaped from her throat while her best friend's body burned, ensuring that she would not return as a zombie.
After a few moments, Gerald wiped away his tears, marched over to the counter at the end of the room, scooped up a gram scale, and threw it with an enraged roar at the middle window. The window shattered, glass littering both the fire escape below. "We don't have much time," Gerald shouted at Arnold and Helga. "If we're gonna go, we gotta go NOW!" Without wasting another second, the three leapt out the window, taking care to avoid the glass that remained around the perimeter, and landed on the fire escape.
Shrieks, emergency sirens, and screams filled the crisp night air throughout the city as the teens took in the scene around them. "They're everywhere," Helga murmured deftly.
"We keep moving," Gerald said flatly with a hardened expression. It was obvious, especially to Arnold, that he had focused all of his thoughts and attention on their escape and had locked away his feelings for the time being regarding Phoebe's death.
"There aren't too many zombies at the bottom of the escape. We can avoid them and go down that alley right there that appears to be clear of zombies. From there it's going to be touch and go. If we're careful and quick, we will make it back to the Sunset Arms alive," continued Arnold, deciding that keeping Gerald focused and all of them alive was the best course of action now. Helga and Gerald nodded, affirming their agreement with the plan.
It didn't take them long to make it down the fire escape. About halfway down, Arnold had found a loose brick in the wall of the high school and had thrown it in the opposite direction they intended to go, luring the zombies away from the bottom of the fire escape. They landed on the pavement below and took off at a run towards the alley, making it with no difficulty. Once they were there and ensured that they were alone, the teens stopped and caught their breath.
"Arnold?" Helga asked in a whisper.
"Yea?"
"Whatever happens, we have to stay together. I can't…I can't lose you. Not like this." Helga held his gaze, then clasped Arnold in a tight hug.
"I promise," he murmured in her ear.
"Guys, we don't have time for this. We have to keep moving!" Gerald hissed with a tone of annoyance in his voice. The three of them peered out at the opposite end of the alley, then took off into the streets of the city. The future before them was unclear, but one thing was for sure. This was the beginning of the end.
A/N: Thank you for reading this Halloween themed story as it is generally not a genre I tend to write! I certainly hope that you enjoyed it! What follows is some background information that may help you understand some parts a little better:
-"Aishiteru" means "I love you" in Japanese
-a scoopula is a linear metal object with a pointed end used to scoop up various materials for experiments
-a gram scale is essentially the same as a regular scale, except it is smaller and measures in gram units
-acetone is a highly flammable substance
-a sparker is used to generate a spark in order to light a fire