Alrighty then. This is a story I've been wanting to put out there for quite some time now, years in fact. It's largely inspired by a story that used to be here on the Pit, but got taken down.
DISCLAIMER: "Degrassi" is the property of Epitome Pictures and Bell Media. "Left 4 Dead" is the property of Turtle Rock Studios and Valve Corporation. No copyright infringement is intended and no profit is being made from this fan work.
Henry Moon was bored. He was in detention on a Friday when he should already be out with his friends and his boyfriend. He had gotten in detention for throwing a fat, hardback copy of a math textbook at a jerk, Owen specifically. Though he was bored and the teacher present forbade him from reading his current book (the fifth time re-reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince), he didn't regret his actions. The homophobic bully had asked for it, and now he'd have a broken nose to show for it.
He glanced at the clock; half an hour to go. It was hot, the beginning of May. The teacher present had his face buried in a newspaper. Henry glared at the newspaper in irritation. He needed a cigarette badly, a need that was not helped at all by the dead silence. Henry hated being alone and the silence; it left too much room for his thoughts.
Luck seemed to favor Henry, however, when there was a loud, abrupt mumbling from the teacher's walkie-talkie, which caused Henry to jump in surprise. The teacher muttered something back and then took off, telling Henry to keep his butt planted in the desk. Henry sighed in relief; he felt like throwing a chair through the window. He quickly strode over to the window and pushed it open. He sat on the windowsill and reached into his back pocket, pulling out his pack of cigarettes and lighter. He lit one off and took a long drag on it. As the nicotine flooded through him, he felt his nerves being settled down, the negative thoughts being settled down. He sat there for a couple of more minutes, making sure to finish the cigarette off quickly; he didn't expect the teacher to be gone long. He imagined for a second what Peter's expression if he saw him smoking. Although his boyfriend had mostly gotten used to Henry's smoking, there was always at least a flicker of disapproval that flitted across Peter's handsome face whenever Henry began to smoke.
Running a hand through his spiky, dark brown hair, he ground out the finished cigarette and tossed it out the window, feeling a slight amount of guilt about the littering, but reasoned that the teacher would find the cigarette in the trash. When Henry walked back to his desk and sat down, he felt himself nodding off. Insomnia be damned, he had not gotten much sleep last night, though on some level he almost always wanted to sleep. 'Eh, what the hell?' he thought to himself. He got out his phone and set the alarm for 4:00 PM, half an hour later. He placed his face on the desk and fell quickly off to sleep.
Henry woke with a start. He had been having a somewhat familiar nightmare, but that wasn't important. He could immediately tell something was wrong, for it was dark outside. He glanced at the clock. 6:45 PM! He was angry now. The teacher was supposed to release him at four! And why hadn't his phone gone off?! He pulled out his phone and glanced at it; it had been on silent, of course. Well that explained that. He growled in irritation. What about janitors or something?
He stepped outside into the dimly lit hallway, and of course there was no one there. What kind of sick freak would actually want to hang around in this godforsaken place for hours?
He walked around the corner when he was met with a horrible sight: A dead teacher, ripped into multiple pieces, his glassy eyes staring wide open in horror, his limbs separated and several organs laying scattered around. There was a ridiculous amount of blood spattered on the walls all around the dead man.
Henry fought back revulsion, covering his mouth with his hand and forcing back tears. He forced back unpleasant memories from his mind. Oh god! This was nothing like in the movies and the video games. Nothing had prepared him for the smell, the sound of the flies buzzing, the utterly real caked and blackened blood.
He immediately pulled out his cell phone, only to find that there were zero bars. "What the fuck?!" he said, making sure to keep his voice down. He had always been able to find service! "Come on!" he practically cried as he dialed nine-one-one. It was no use; there wasn't even a dial tone.
That's when a horrible noise made his blood run cold. It was low and savage, like an animal's growl, only more horrible and guttural. He turned his brown eyes in the direction of the noise, and was met with a sight even more horrible than the first: a person, with putrid skin, and parts of its skin were hanging off. It was stooped low over a dead body, tearing off chunks of the corpse with its teeth.
"A zombie?!" Henry thought. What the hell was this?! How was this even possible! Okay, he had to get a grip on himself. Zombies are real apparently; get over it. Henry turned towards the stairs; he had to get out of the thing's line of sight. He jumped down to the landing, jumping over the blood-soaked stairs, landing silently like a cat. He was silently thankful for being on the track team for the first three years of his high school career. But there, he was met with an even more horrible sight: Three more zombies, also crouched low over a dead body. "Fuck my life!" Henry thought. They were right in front of the exit to where Henry had parked! He heard a noise above him. Had the other zombie seen him? No, it was talking.
"Come on, we have to go!" a girl whispered frantically. Henry slipped into the shadow of the stairs in case the zombies were disturbed. She and a guy stopped at the top of the staircase. It was a short girl with reddish-blonde hair: Holly J., the school's alpha female, and a tall burly guy: Owen, the school's alpha jock. Henry saw with some satisfaction that his nose was still clearly hurt. "Oh shit!" Holly J. said miserably.
"They're down here too!" Owen swore under his breath.
The zombies jerked for a moment but continued devouring the corpse. Henry realized that none of them were going anywhere as long as the zombies were in front of the door. He thought for a moment. You always killed zombies by damaging the brain or decapitation, unless you're in Harry Potter, in which case you need fire, or Final Fantasy Tactics, in which you need healing magic. But he was just going to have to hope that these zombies were like the ones in the movies. He motioned towards Owen and Holly J.
"Fag-I mean, Henry, is that you?" Owen asked. Henry ignored the almost insult.
"Hey you two," Henry began. "I'm about to buy us some time. When I give the word, run for the doors; my car is outside." They both nodded.
Henry reached inside of his pocket and grabbed a long, sharpened pencil. He crept towards the nearest zombie and jump onto its back. With all his strength, he rammed the long thin piece of wood into the screaming zombie's eye-socket and pushed. The zombie stopped screaming and fell to the ground. The other zombies stared stupidly at their dead fellow for just a second. "Now!" Henry screamed. He ran towards the doors with all his speed, the zombies' screams of rage and frustration ringing loudly in his ears, the other teens following him by only a few feet.
He pushed the doors open and ran towards his nearby, black car. Before he reached it he pulled out his keys and pushed the button to unlock the doors. He yanked the driver's door open and jumped in, slamming and locking the door behind him. Holly J. was right behind him, jumping in the passenger seat. Owen ran to the right backseat and hesitated. A female zombie tackled him to the ground and though he tried to throw her off, the rest of the horde caught up with her and began to devour him. He screamed in pain as limbs were pulled from their sockets and the zombies began gnawing at their flesh.
Holly J. screamed but Henry threw the car into reverse and began driving out of the parking lot, some zombies still chasing after them. Now that they were in relative safety, Henry noticed something: these zombies were fast. They were not the slow, stupid plodding things of classic movies. These monsters had chased them down at top speed. Why oh why couldn't it have been a classic apocalypse. Holly J.'s sobs broke his attention.
"They got Declan!" she cried hysterically. "And Anya and Danny and Clare! Everyone's dead!"
"They didn't get us," Henry said in response. He pulled out his cell phone and tried to call Peter again, hoping against hope that his blond beloved was still alive.
