A/N: First I would like to apologize to all of you readers of my fan fiction Peach Creek Fox, I know it's been well over a year since I've updated and for that I am truly sorry. I am in no way abandoning the story, for months I've had the next chapter in the works but have not been able to make it flow like I would want to. Many people have been asking me whether or not they could adopt the story or not and other such things, I'm not giving up the story but it is your right to make something similar, I just ask that you do not take my thing word for word. If in my story I do something that you don't like I freely invite you to make your own and do it your way, because remember this is fan fiction so it's for the fans to enjoy. So get your fingers typing or if you're doing what I'm doing now and using a speech to text program and let your words fly and post good stories to this website. I will have Peach Creek Fox up as soon as I'm able and with this new program I should be able to get it done much faster than I normally would, so until then please enjoy this new fan fiction.
A/N2: As of late I've had zombies on the brain so I feel that this will quell the tide of thoughts related to walking corpses. So why not use a mix of Ed, Edd, n' Eddy and Left 4 Dead to do it. Also like Peach Creek Fox the Big Picture Show never happened.
Disclaimer: I do not own Ed, Edd, n' Eddy or Left 4 DeadLEFT 4 ED: DEAD DAYS OF SUMMER… NOW PLAYING
ROTTING PEACHES
THE PEACHES AREN'T THE ONLY THINGS ROTTING.
Starring:
Ed (Age: 16), Edd (Age: 16), Eddy (Age: 16), and Nazz (Age: 16)
Act One, Scene One
It was a cold and cloudy day in the town of Peach Creek. What was once a happy little town, had now become a bloody and ravaged shadow of its former self. A light rain fell from the grief stricken heavens onto the horrid land below. Through the soft pitter-patter of the rain several pairs of feet pounding over the wet ground could be clearly heard like the ringing of bells. The group that was running was a small group of four teens, consisting of three boys and one girl.
At the forefront was the shortest of the boys, standing at around five foot seven. His wild midnight blue hair mostly clung to him, while three fin like columns of it stayed perfectly in place as opposed to flailing behind him as it should have as he ran. His semi-drenched red jacket and blood stained white t-shirt held his chest tightly in his mind. Worn blue jeans barely scraped the ground around his black sneakers. Gaining the nerve, he looked behind himself and his group with fearful brown eyes.
"Hurry up guys, they're gaining on us!" he practically squeaked. The group's tallest, a boy towering at an impressive six foot two grunted before grabbing the rest of the group and surging forward in a burst of speed. His steeled jade eyes scanned for something, anything that could give them a semblance of protection. He smiled widely when he spotted one of his favorite childhood hangouts, the Junkyard. Banking right he sprinted inside, running along the familiar paths, until he reached an old boarded up purple van. Tossing the others into it and onto the waterbed, he dived inside. The last boy and the girl gained their bearings enough to seal up the doors behind him and lock them.
The small band of teens greedily gulped down air before silencing themselves as they heard moans outside. Huddling together they waited with baited breath. After several minutes everything went back to silence but they dared not move or speak for a few more. Stumbling in the primarily dark space, the first boy felt around a bit before finding a few flashlights. Turning one on he looked at his three companions.
The tall boy wore a calm look that unnerved the short boy a bit. His large green jacket seemed to hang off of him proudly even with the tears and blood. His smoke gray shirt and black cargo pant were faring only a bit better. His long and wild auburn hair almost completely covered his eyes, which were clouded over in thought. He stared at the large teen for a few more seconds before turning to the other male.
This one, he noted with some relief and comfort, was shaking like a leaf like he normally did in bad situations. His short-sleeved white polo shirt and khaki pants were probably the most blood stained out of any of their clothes, though he was unsure about the boy's tie seeing as it was naturally blood red. Neat raven black hair poked out from under a just as black sock-hat. His royal blue eyes were misty with unshed tears, his brain still trying to process what was happening. Shaking his head, he finally turned to the sole female of the group.
She unlike the last boy was freely crying as she rocked back and forth. The short boy felt pained seeing her like this. Her long golden blond hair seemed to have wilted, her baby blue eyes wide with fear and sorrow. She hugged her gray sweatpants clad legs to her ample chest, covered by a peach and white jersey over a black t-shirt.
"Guys, we need to pull ourselves together," the short teen, the sock-hat wearing teen, and the girl all jumped a bit at the sound of the tall teen's strong voice.
"E-Ed, how can you ask us to pull ourselves together when we saw those, those things kill Jimmy!" Ed let a bit of sadness creep into his eyes as he looked at Edd.
"I can because if we don't we'll end up like him," he said gravely. Eddy gulped and shakily put a hand onto Edd's shoulder.
"Monobrow is right Double D, he's made me watch enough zombie movies to know that if we want to at least live a bit longer we'll have to be calm," this seemed to rub Nazz the wrong way as she straightened up and gave the two Eds an incredulous look.
"Calm? CALM?! You want us to be calm after seeing someone we've know for years being murdered?!" she screamed hysterically. Eddy moved to shut her up, fearful of her attracting any of their former pursuers, but was stopped as Ed slapped her.
"Get a hold of yourself, do you want to end up like Jimmy, or better yet do you want to become one of them?! Please Nazz, I don't want anymore of us ending up like the people in my movies and comics," what started as a strong and stern scolding quickly dissolved into a soft plea as Ed bowed his head. Edd was unsure as to how he should interpret his longtime friend's behavior but was saved when Eddy spoke up.
"Ed, I-I'm sure Sarah's fine, she's got Rolf, hell even that jerk Kevin looking after her, you don't have to try and be strong, remember even the strong willed leader has a chance of dying in these kinds of situations, and you need to live so the brat won't have to lose someone else," Eddy said softly as he put a hand on the big Ed's shoulder. Edd and Nazz were shocked at not only the gentleness of Eddy's voice but at the fact that they'd forgotten that not only were the other people of the Cul-de-sac were in the same bind as them but one of those people was Ed's younger sister and now former best friend to Jimmy, Sarah. Nazz was about to apologize for her hysterics when the sound of sniffling cut through the lingering silence. She leaned forward and saw Ed wiping away at his eyes in an attempt to stem his flowing tears. Biting her bottom lip, she hugged him and rubbed his back soothingly to try and comfort him. After another few minutes Edd spoke up.
"Ed I apologize for my code of conduct earlier but given the current situation I feel it was completely reasonable but I still apologize, now however we need your knowledge of these, these things so we have a chance of surviving," Ed nodded and pulled himself out of the hug. Taking a deep breath to compose himself he turned to the three.
"Before anything we need weapons to defend ourselves, so look around the van for anything that could work," with a nod the teens began searching the old vehicle for anything of use. Eddy soon enough let out a triumphant laugh as he pulled out a metal baseball bat.
"I forgot I stashed this in here incase those damn Kankers tried attacking us again," Nazz gave the bat a critical eye.
"Isn't that the bat Kevin lost a couple of weeks ago?" Eddy just blushed and gave a sheepish grin/laugh.
"Unimportant, right now that bat brings up our chances, Double D, have you got anything?" Ed asked as he turned to the brainy Ed.
"No weapons I'm afraid but I was able to find some first-aid kits I had stored away in the likely case one of us got injured… again," quickly he brought out several red packs with large white patches baring a red cross on each.
"God Sockhead, you have at least a baker's dozen of these things,"
"Good, we can each have one then, leave the rest though, if anyone else passes through here they might need one," Ed muttered as he passed out a first-aid kit to the others.
"Why only one Ed, shouldn't we bring more incase we each run out?"
"No, they'll only weigh us down, and I don't need to tell you what happens to little dickens who are slow," he replied solemnly. Nazz shivered at this as did Edd and Eddy. After a few minutes of searching the group was less then pleased with their results.
"Great, the only real useful things we could find is the bat and some medkits, fan-fucking-tastic," Eddy growled.
"I did find some chains but that would be a bad idea as I doubt we could effectively use them as weapons without getting bitten," Edd sighed. Ed looked at the chains and grabbed them before wrapping them around his fists and forearms.
"Ed, you're not seriously going to fight those things like that are you? That would be suicide!" Nazz hissed. The large teen just shrugged and gave her a dry look.
"You've got to take what you can get, so beggars can't be choosers right now,"
"Ed, the risks you're putting yourself and the rest of us in by going through with this idea is-" Eddy who gave Ed a curiously thoughtful look cut off Edd as he was about to go off on a more then likely long rant.
"You know something about this 'Green Flu' that we don't?" Ed gave a slow nod and looked up to the ceiling of the van.
"I overheard my dad talking to some of those CEDA people last week, they mentioned something about immunity to the virus and that my family possibly has this immunity,"
"Wait, why were they talking to your dad Ed?" Nazz asked curiously.
"That's because Ed's father is the head of the hospital Nazz," Edd answered.
"Really? Sarah never really mentioned what her parents did for a living so I never knew," shaking her head she secured one of the medkits to herself.
"Now we need to decide who gets the bat," Ed stated. Edd gave a subtle glance to Nazz and was about to suggest giving it to her when Eddy rose his hand.
"I say Double D, Nazz and I can take care of ourselves until we can find something, which considering we're in the Junkyard should be pretty quick,"
"I agree, no offense dude but you need it way more then Eddy or me," Edd looked at them then sighed before grabbing the bat.
"Alright, with that out of the way we need to think of a place that we can try to hold up in, and not any of our homes, we already know they've been compromised," the group began to rack their brains for a suitable location.
"How about the Grocery store? We'll need food,"
"No, even though we will be in need of food, going there would be suicide as it's probably been swarmed first by the frenzied masses trying to get supplies then the flesh eating monsters that have surely eaten them by this point," Nazz gave a small pout as Ed's spot on reasoning shot down her idea.
"How about the hospital then? You're dad might be there and they might be working on some sort of vaccine,"
"That's an even worse idea Sockhead, one of Ed's movies beat it into my head that going to a hospital during a zombie apocalypse is one of the stupidest things you could do," Eddy cut in. Edd frowned and gave the short Ed a skeptic look.
"Oh? Why would that be Eddy?"
"Because the hospital could be overrun by people hoping to find a cure or whatever, or by the ones they were trying to fix up who turned, plus for all we know the hospital was ground zero for the infection here in Peach Creek," the brainy Ed was taken aback, not just because Eddy had a valid point but because both of his usually goofy, slow-witted friends seemed to have spontaneously transformed into well learned individuals that could lead their small group to salvation. Considering Ed's, and to a lesser degree Eddy's, knowledge in the subject they were dealing with he shouldn't have been so surprised.
"Let's hit up the school, since it's Summer no one should be there, the gym teacher also has a radio we can use to try to call for help," Edd gave a mock gasp.
"Why Eddy, you want to go to school, it really must be the end of the world," Eddy rolled his eyes and grunted before smirking.
"Well I have always wanted to get away with wrecking school property with, what did you call it that one time, impunity?" he laughed as his scholarly friend's face twisted into a mask of mortification.
"Alright, we know where we're headed so let's get a move on, I don't want us out there when it gets dark," the others nodded and readied themselves as Ed opened the van's doors. A collected sigh of relief was let out when they saw no immediate danger. Quickly filing out of the van the group set out through the Junkyard. They were almost out of the kingdom of trash when they halted. There standing little over ten meters away was a group of Infected milling about aimlessly.
"Stay silent and out of sight, we have the element of surprise so let's use it to our advantage," Ed whispered, never taking his eyes off the immediate threat. The others nodded and lowly crouched to the ground. Ed himself crouched low to the ground and silently crawled behind the Junkyard's mounds of debris, getting ever closer to the moaning and Infected. He was about ready to spring out and blindside them when three startled screams tore through the air. With his heart filling with dread he abandoned stealth in favor of getting to his companions. Rushing to where he left them he was filling with an emotion far different than the somewhat uncommon feeling of fear. No, what was coursing through him now was something the gentle oaf was only in touch with rarely. Rage.
Eddy was throwing every curse he knew at himself in his head. How could he let one sneak up on them? To make things worse their screaming grabbed the intention of the ones Ed was going to jump. With Double D frozen with fear, Nazz chucking things at the incoming Infected, and only a med kit for protection he wasn't too hopeful of his fate.
And that's when Ed jumped in. A clenched, chain covered fist crashing into the left temple of the sneaky Infected that got behind them. Eddy stood transfixed, the image of the head collapsing with such brutal force burned into his mind. Ed's primal roar of anger brought him back to reality.
Ed screamed as he grabbed an Infected by the arm and tossed the snarling woman into her cohorts. How dare these moaning maggots sacks try to take someone else from him? First they take Jimmy, now they try taking his friends, and... He choked back a sob when he thought of his beloved baby sister. No, he wouldn't lose anyone or he wasn't Ed, slayer of the Undead.
The other stood transfixed as they watched the normally gentle oaf tear through the Infected with savage grace. Double D had to look away, his stomach churning at the carnage of his childhood friend's rampage. This proved fortunate as an Infected man was barreling right towards him. Fear flooded him and he wasn't even aware he was swinging his bat. Time seemed to slow as he watched the bat connect. The crack and following thud was thunderous in his ears.
His legs buckled under him, his gaze lingering on the corpse in front of him. Its stillness, in his mind, was unnatural, the red leaking from its broken head something alien. At last his stomach had forced its contents out. He was barely finished emptying his stomach when his body was wracked with sobbing. Good Lord, what had he done?
He didn't even register being picked up and taken into a shabby hut that was the supposed guardhouse for the junkyard. Slowly a voice penetrated the shroud of grief covering his mind.
"D… Double D… Edd… Eddward listen when I'm trying to help you dammit!" With a start he looked up to grim faced Eddy.
"Good of you to listen Sockhead," Eddy said with a wary grin.
"Now I need you to calm down, it's going to be okay,"
"Okay? Okay?! Eddy I just killed someone, they could have had a family, a job, a life! Eddy, I'm a murderer!" The young man wailed. Eddy looked at his grief stricken friend for a moment before speaking.
"Did you enjoy it?" Edd looked at his friend in the bewilderment.
"How can you ask that?!" Eddy gave his friend a stern glare that made him flinch.
"Just answer the damn question," Edd gave a shaky nod.
"N-no,"
"Do you feel bad for doing it?" The sock wearing Ed Boy nodded his head sadly.
"Then don't feel so bad man, it was either you or him and right now I'd rather have you," the greedy teen put a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder and gave him a meaningful look. With tear filled eyes the shaken Ed looked to his friend.
"Do you really mean that Eddy?" His friend grinned at him and gave him a friendly punch on the shoulder.
"Of course I do you knucklehead," Double D smiled at his friend and hugged him close. Eddy squirmed in discomfort in his friend's embrace.
"Alright enough with the mushy moment, I don't do mushy," his friend chuckled and stood.
"All the same thank you Eddy, I'm glad that I have you as a friend," with a nod the two went over to Ed and Nazz. Ed, while breathing heavily, seemed to be doing fine. Nazz herself seemed a bit off but tried her best to stay determined. As the other two Eds looked over their friends' work they saw that the two had scoured any of the nearby lockers, having broken off some locks for some. Amongst the treasures found in the lockers they had secured an old tattered backpack, a few bags snackfood, weapon maintenance kits, a machete, a fire ax, and to Eddy's delight a pump action shotgun.
"I called shotgun!" Eddy piped up as he grabbed the boom stick. Nazz gave an unsure look.
"Are you sure dude? The recoil on that might throw you back," Eddy gave the young blonde beauty a lopsided grin.
"Trust me Nazz, just last summer my fat lump of a dad took me my big bro out to a shooting range, and I got my hands on this sweet shotgun, so I know how to work with it," Nazz bit her bottom lip but nodded. Ed gave his friend a nod before grabbing the machete.
"I'll take the machete since it has a shorter range, Nazz you take the fire ax, who will carry the backpack?" Ed looked at the rest expectedly. The other's shared a look with each other before Edd raised his hand.
"I will take it, personally I would feel better if I could avoid causing violence and instead be there to either patch you up where lease make sure that you do not die by providing you with ammunition or any other essentials you may need," Ed nodded as he handed his friend the backpack, Eddy chuckled as the brainy Ed boy staggered under the weight.
"Are you sure you can handle that Double D?" The scrawny teen grunted and gave a nod.
"Alright then, let's start getting headed over to the school, I don't want to be out roaming around at night else our flesh eating adversaries devour us," Ed said grimly. The others nodded and got ready to bolt from the shack. Ed took point and nodded back to the others machete held firmly in his grip. As silencing all Ed kicked open the door sending back an Infected that had been trying to hammer its way in. With a battle cry he started hacking his way through any Infected that got in his way, with any providing cover fire with a shotgun.
With a flurry of movement the four brandishing their weapons battled their way through score of infected. In the back of his mind Double D felt a twinge of envy at how Eddy and Nazz seemed to only freeze for a few moments after their first kill before getting right back into the fray. However the more logical part of his mind knew that the two of them would probably break down later on when they were not in as much danger and adrenaline wasn't flowing through their veins. He sent up a silent prayer that tonight his dreams would not be riddled with nightmares and asked for forgiveness for all that would fall by his and his comrades hands.
He yelled and surprised as he felt something flyby his head and turned to see that Nazz had buried her ax into the head of an Infected that was about to bite into his shoulder.
"Watch yourself their Double D," the blonde flashed him a small smile before getting back to chopping down Infected. The boy felt his cheeks heat up, knowing that a mighty blush had overtaken his face and mumbled up thank you to his savior. Nazz on the other hand was caught up in her fight, and valiantly held down the bile that tried raising up from her throat. She was no stranger to gore filled horror movies but when confronted with it in real life she did not even feel half as brave as she did watching the movies. It hurt her knowing that some of these people were her neighbors, people that she used to see walking down the street. 'Well, at the very least it's not anyone I know personally,' she thought grimly to herself and shuddered at the thought of killing someone that she knew.
Eddy grunted as he shot off another slug and repositioned his feet to fire off another without being blown off his own feet. As he kept up his fire, he allowed his mind to slightly drift. On a level he knew that killing was wrong but being the kind of person he is he put certain priorities above remorse. In this case he had put the lives of himself and his friends above those that he was now shooting. He wouldn't admit it, or maybe he would if he was badgered enough, but the lives of Ed and Double D meant everything to him. Adding Nazz's life to the next just made this all the more important. It might be bad of him but in this case to hell with the world the lives of these three come before anyone else.
Before they even realized it they had made their way out of the junkyard and were fighting through their way to the Lane and soon enough the streets of Peach Creek. Ed whipped his head around taking gauge of all be infected around them. With a growing pit in his gut he realized that soon enough they would be overrun. He frantically searched for some place they could hold out when he saw the candy store. Hope flared in his chest as he yelled out a command.
"Get to the candy store, we can defend ourselves better in their,"
"Ed, how are we going to be able to defend ourselves in their?" Nazz asked as she kicked away an Infected that had gotten to close. Double D looked over to this candy store and realized where Ed was going. Turning around and pushing away an Infected he called out to Nazz.
"Nazz, Ed's right in the candy store we can bottlenecked them, the candy store also has a panic room that we can take refuge in!"
"Well what the hell are we waiting for, let's get moving," Eddy yelled out as he used the butt of a shotgun to break open the skull of an Infected man that had slipped by him. The others nodded and made a mad dash for the store, ducking and weaving through the Infected. Ed threw open the door the moment he got his hand on the handle and ushered the others in before slamming the door shut behind all of them.
"Ed, Eddy grabbed a metal blinds and bring them down," Double D instructed as he pointed to right above the store windows. The two nodded and grabbed the blinds before slamming them down just as the Infected slammed into the windows shattering them. As much as the Infected snarled and slammed against the blinds they could not break through them. So they began to batter at the door only to be met with Eddy's shotgun. After a few more shots Ed put his hand on Eddy's shoulder.
"Save your ammo else these brain craving monsters devour your entire supply," the short teen nodded and moved out of the way so Ed could continue the offensive in his stead. As he turned around to address Nazz and Double D he sucked into his breath. Behind the to was the Zombified candy store owner quietly ambling up behind them. With a shout he charged forward and slammed the butt of his shotgun into the store owner's face. The Zombified owner staggered back in a daze but regained his senses and with a snarl charged at the three.
Eddy braced himself as Nazz and Double D whirled around, and grunted as he use his shotgun to block the snarling man's attempts to claw out his throat. Double D yelped and swung his bat into the stomach of the Infected, giving Eddy some space to breathe. With a yelp Nazz brought down her acts on the Infected's right shoulder bringing it down to the ground. The disease madden man could not even let out a snarl before Eddy brought down the butt of his shotgun, crushing his skull and leaving it a bloody mess of gray matter and broken bone. The three gave a sigh of relief before realizing what they had done.
Eddy looked at the body and sank to his knees. He had not known this man personally but for years this man had smiled at him and his friends even when they had no money and could not afford any of the things in his shop. He treated them with respect and kindness, and it hurt Eddy that he was the one to end him. Finally it all just started come down on him, and finally he let the tears fall. Nazz kneeled by him and hugged him close, letting her own tears mix with his on the bloody floor. Double the could only look away, fully understanding what the others were going through.
"Guys, get to the panic room now!" Ed roared as he kicked back several Infected before running to the back of the store. Double D, Eddy, and Nazz scrambled to their feet and followed after. The moment the three of them crossed the threshold of the doorway, Ed slammed the door behind them. In a repeat of earlier the four waited for the banging and snarling outside of the door to stop. Finally, a blissful silence overtook them and they all collapse to the floor in exhaustion. They felt sore all over and felt the last bits of adrenaline leaving their system. They could feel the remorse and terror of earlier trying to creep into their hearts but let the euphoria of surviving wash away these negative feelings.
With half closed eyes, Eddy looked around at the storeroom, only making out a few recognizable things in his tired state. That is until his eyes landed on the stack a familiar globes resting in the corner. He stared at them for a second before getting back to his feet and slowly making his way over. Slowly taking four in hand he walked over to the others.
"Hey guys, I know this has been hard on all of us, believe me I know, and… I know that will be hard if not impossible to go back to the way we were, so if we are to say goodbye to our past lives now, then let's say goodbye with these," with that he held up four jawbreakers. Blinking slowly the others stared, the meaning of Eddy's words sinking into their beings. Shifting uncomfortably, Eddy was about to tell them to forget it and just put the jawbreakers way when Ed stood up.
"Not just a goodbye, Eddy, but a promise to not take this life for granted," the others nodded and got up. With a tired smile Eddy handed out the jawbreakers. When that was done they all held the jawbreakers out in center. Looking between them Eddy spoke up.
"Goodbye to our childhood, never forget the fun days we've had," from here Double D spoke up.
"Least we forget who we are and all that we've held dear,"
"Promise to never lose ourselves in this strange new world," Nazz chimed in.
"Promise to survive and always look after one another," Ed added before they all finished.
"From this day on we will stick together and find good in this new world," with that they popped the sugary treats into their mouths before settling down into a tired and tormented sleep.
End Act One, Scene One
A/N: Well there you have it folks, the first chapter up Left 4 Ed: Dead Days Of Summer. I really hope that you'll enjoy this fan fiction series mixing together two things that I truly enjoy. Unlike Peach Creek Fox I have the whole general story mapped out in my head, now I only need to fill in the details. The story itself will be around me twenty-five chapters long with an epilogue at the end. Since I still need to put in a few more details please send me ideas of how you feel this story should go in certain areas. If it fits with the general map that I have I just might throw it in and will give credit to whoever had given me that idea. If I don't take your idea please do not take it personally, it just may not fit with what I have planned for certain characters or certain locations. All the same I hope that you liked this first chapter and will like the rest of the story. Until next time take care this is Animogx signing off.