Life with a Side of Zombies
I. Rise and Shine
It began on a Monday.
Jade West hated things. A lot of things. There were very few exceptions. Beck being one. Scissors being another. But Mondays... If there was one thing that made Jade identify with the rest of her contemporaries (or contemptoraries, really) it was the this all-consuming loathing for Mondays. The second she opened her eyes that morning, she was in a black mood. See, she had gone home last night, thinking that her mother was going to be home (because that was what her mother had said over the phone) but lo and behold her house had not only been devoid of her mother who had to 'unexpectedly extend her trip' but held, instead, her father who thought that it would be 'nice' to spend Sunday getting Jade to talk about her plans after high school.
Because, you know, a career in law was the right path.
Her father's words, not hers. Obviously. A career in law could just suck it and die. Those were her words.
There was a restless feeling that settled at the pit of her stomach which may or may not have been hunger. (She didn't eat much with her father blabbering on about the 'ol' alma mater' and how this art thing was just some passing phase.) Although she was a true masochist at heart, the thought of seeing her father in the kitchen while just trying to get a piece of toast and having another go at it didn't exactly thrill her. But Beck... Beck would feed her. Beck made only good feelings appear in her tummy not horrible empty feelings.
And at least his parents were somewhere in Hawaii and not at home trying to ruin his life.
With that in mind, Jade grabbed a backpack from her closet and started stuffing it with clothes that she could stash at Beck's RV for the week. There was absolutely no way she was coming back home unless absolutely necessary. And even then, she'd have to think about it. After a shower and a fresh change of clothes, she pulled on her boots and headed on out. Beck lived a couple of streets over and it always took Jade about fifteen minutes to get there. Armed with her bags and her PearPod set to play some Led, she began her short journey over to her boyfriend's house. The second she turned the corner however, she suffered the unfortunate sight of Sinjin running toward her.
Oh, great. It was a little too early to be dealing with nerd.
She already had the perfect scathing line prepared, it was just a matter of waiting for the perfect time to release it. But every step the curly-haired teen took as he came closer to her made something very clear to Jade. Something was running after Sinjin.
A zombie.
"RUN!" the geek shouted at her, arms flailing wildly.
Crap.
Jade West hated Mondays.
...
Cat Valentine's day had began as all Mondays began. With a quick shower, followed by about half an hour on her hair. Then she headed downstairs for breakfast with her family, almost tripping on her brother's skateboard along the way. Except there wasn't any breakfast on the table. Nope. What awaited her were the bloody remains of her parents. The once cheerful butter yellow walls were splattered with blood and their dead bodies, ravaged and gutted, lay on the floor.
Cat rushed to the sink and emptied out what little contents her stomach had. Her parents were dead. Murdered? What could have done that to them? She could feel her chest tighten and she let out a strangled sob, the tears suddenly pouring from her eyes. With a shaky hand, Cat reached for the kitchen phone and dialed 911. She waited as it rang. And rang. And it continued ringing until she gave up and just hung up the phone, frustrated.
What to do? What to do?
It was then that it occurred to her that her brother wasn't around, when mornings would usually find him bouncing around the kitchen talking to their parents. Oh no. She could feel her chest constrict painfully at the thought of finding her brother in the same state as her parents but she had to look for him. On her way out of the kitchen, she spotted her mother's tennis racquet leaning against the wall, waiting to be picked up for her mother's ritual Monday morning game at the court. Cat took it, testing its weight in her hand. She wasn't sure what had done this to her parents but she was going to make sure it wasn't going to happen to her either.
She walked into the living room, calling out for her brother, all the while gripping the tennis racquet tightly in her hand. She paused and listened. There was a slight rustling coming from upstairs and Cat's feet automatically made their way to the stairs. The rustling turned into pounding. Footsteps? She stopped at the base of stairs, unsure of what was happening.
It was her brother. Only it wasn't her brother. He looked... dead. He was an ashen color and his skin seemed to be falling off bit by bit. He was also covered in blood.
And he was coming right at her.
...
Although some had previously theorized that Jade did not have a heart, she was pretty certain that that nonexistent heart was what was pounding in her chest as she raced back home. Sinjin was dead, head pulled off violently from his body. Jade knew that she had said many awful things about the geek but no one deserved to die like that. She shook her head in an effort to rid her head of the sight of the zombie attacking her former classmate. Former. What a word. That wasn't supposed to happen for another two years when they graduated from Hollywood Arts.
Her boots pounded on the pavement then met the driveway of her house as she jogged toward the front door. She dug her hand into her bag, fingers quick to locate her keys and once she reached the door, she quickly let herself in, slamming it behind her.
"Fuckity-fuck-fuck," she muttered, leaning against the door. What the hell was happening?
She locked the door behind her and started searching for her father, hoping that he was still somewhere in the house. But her efforts were rendered futile when she discovered that her dad's sports car wasn't in the garage. He left? She wasn't gone for that long. Did that mean he left without her? Jade took her phone from her back pocket and tried calling her dad. Straight to voicemail. She tried her mother next and it just kept ringing. Seriously, universe? Beck wasn't answering either and Jade hoped that he was asleep in the safety of his RV. His father had their property gated off after the whole dog incident and Jade had her fingers crossed that zombies were too stupid to know how to climb things.
Jade clenched her jaw and stomped over to the large display case by her father's SUV. It held her father's weapon collection that ranged from guns to martial arts weaponry to her trusty crossbow. Yeah, it was hers. Shut up. Don't judge. For once she was thankful for all the times she suffered through Beck's zombie film collection.
Ugh. Stupid Beck. She dialed his number again and left him a terse voicemail. She was worried, okay? She hated worrying.
Once she slipped her phone back into her pocket, she went up to her bedroom and started repacking. Jeans, long-sleeved shirts, gloves, sunglasses, another pair of sturdy boots and a good amount of underwear. Jade would die if she had to compromise the cleanliness of her under things. That done, she headed to the kitchen and started emptying out the pantry with whatever wouldn't spoil right away. A short stop at her father's study and she had the keys to his SUV.
He wouldn't mind.
...
Cat just killed her brother.
He'd been coming right at her and instinct told her to tighten her hold on her mother's racquet and just swing with all her might. The face of the racquet had met his head, making it snap sideways. She then took a step back and swung again but from the opposite direction. The second blow sent her brother to his knees and then face first on the stairs.
Jade. She was going to call Jade. Jade would know what to do, she thought as slowly made her way around her brother's body.
It took all the strength she had not to fall to her knees and cry. Instead, Cat ran up the rest of the stairs and to her room, locking it behind her. She cried out happily when Jade answered her mobile on the first ring. Her best friend was sympathetic (which was possibly the first time Jade exhibited that emotion) but also somehow incredibly level-headed and offered Cat instructions on what to pack and a promise to pick her up on the way to Beck's.
Packing helped her keep her mind occupied of thoughts that weren't about her parents who were dead in the kitchen or her zombie brother who was now dead (redead?) on the stairs. She changed her clothes as well. Her pretty dress and heels weren't going to cut it anymore. But when she was done and had her backpack slung over her shoulders, thoughts of what just happened flooded her mind.
Her parents were dead. She killed her zombie brother.
She choked on a sob but refused to think about thing anymore than was necessary. Survival was her priority. Everything else could come after. Brimming with a determination she had never known she possessed, she took a deep breath and armed with her tennis racquet, opened the door to her room. On her way to the stairs, she passed her brother's room and she couldn't help but push the door open. Messy as always. A baseball bat was on the floor near the bed and Cat took it, figuring that extra weaponry would be a good thing.
She was going to survive even if it killed her.
Oh wait.
Clearing her head of confusing thoughts, she hurried downstairs. She made sure the backdoor was locked and all the windows were secure and the curtains drawn before waiting by the front door for Jade to show up. Cat was eternally grateful to have someone like Jade who seemed to be the type to know exactly what to do in a situation like this. As soon as the thought entered her mind, the sound of tires screeching announced Jade's arrival, her father's black SUV coming to a sudden stop right in front of her door. The street seemed to be clear and Cat slung her bag over her shoulders and with her bat and tennis racquet, she left her house. She was halfway to Jade's car when she spotted a couple of zombies running towards them. Jade had seen them too apparently, because the sunroof opened and the brunette appeared with a shotgun in hand. In two clean shots, the zombies were dead. Well, more dead than they used to be at least.
"That's awesome, Jade!" Cat exclaimed as she crammed herself into the vehicle.
Jade shrugged and made a u-turn, heading back in the direction she came from. "Target practice since I was a kid. It was supposed to be therapeutic and release some pent-up aggression or something."
"Useful." Weird how target practice would be the key to survival after all the years Cat's spent honing her voice. "Where are we going now?"
"Beck. Jerk won't answer his stupid phone. My mom won't either and my dad..." Jade shook her head. "I hate Mondays."
The radio was switched on and the announcer stated in a panicked voice that the city was unsafe. LA was being attacked by zombies.
...
Beck Oliver was dreaming. He rarely ever did nowadays since he'd often fall asleep exhausted from a day of having to deal with school/friends/girlfriend that sleep had become a rather straightforward affair. So that made this particularly dream especially surreal. He was stuck in the middle of the sea on some boat, angry waves tossing it about while angrier clouds were rumbling overhead. Hard rain was pouring on him, making his clothes stick uncomfortably to his skin. He was trying his best to figure out how to maneuver the boat which, for some reason, seemed to be getting smaller by the minute. Jade, ever helpful even in his dream, was shouting at him to answer his phone. Phone?
"Answer your stupid phone! BECK!"
Beck sat up in his bed. It was Jade's ringing tone, a voice recording, that was finally able to pierce through his dream. Running a hand through his messy hair, he reached for his PearPhone and answered the call.
"I'm outside your gate. Open it for me, will you? And bring a bat just in case."
"Just in case?" he echoed but Jade had already ended the call. A bat. He had one of those... somewhere in his RV. Oh yeah, underneath the bed. A couple of minutes later and he walked out of his RV and onto the driveway. He spotted Jade's father's SUV and stopped in his tracks. Her dad never dropped her off at his house. What was up?
The passenger door window lowered and Cat waved happily at him. "Can you open the gate? But be sure to shut it as soon as we clear it."
Uh, what?
Bewildered, Beck followed the instructions, pressing the buttons when needed. The vehicle came to a stop beside his RV and he headed to the driver's side which suddenly swung open. The small body of his girlfriend hurtled through the opening and into the circle of his arms, one of her booted feet slamming the door shut. The very first thing that he registered was that his girlfriend was sweating, something Jade refused to do. The second thing was that she was carrying what he recognized as her father's infamous shotgun of the 'if I catch you in my daughter's bedroom again' variety. It was, erm, quite familiar.
What in the world was going on? Beck stared wordlessly at his girlfriend, waiting for her to explain herself.
"Zombies," was Jade's matter-of-fact answer as she started walking to the back of the SUV. "Next time, you answer your damn phone so that I don't have a hernia from worrying about you."
He was about to protest (because seriously? Zombies?) except he was blown away by what he saw when Jade popped the back. Guns on top of guns. Was that a sword? And... Nunchucks?
"Hey, Beck!" Cat waved to him from inside the car.
"Hey, Cat," Beck greeted. The redhead hopped out, a tennis racquet in one hand and a baseball bat in the other. "What's up?"
"My brother turned into a zombie."
Beck had no idea what to say to that. Thankfully, Jade saved him from having to come up with something. "You're gonna need to get changed. Oh, and maybe get your dad's revolver," she informed Beck, as if she were telling him to get her a cup of coffee. "And coffee. I need coffee."
Beck made quick work of changing out of his sleep clothes, then decided to start packing some clothes. He wasn't sure yet if bringing the RV would be a good idea. Given that it was bulletproof, it was pretty safe. But it might attract too much attention which was not a good idea if you found yourself in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. While he was throwing stuff into a bag the two girls told him their own stories. He pulled both girls into a sympathetic hug before hauling his bag onto the SUV.
They agreed to search the house for zombies just in case. Jade had given him another shotgun and a revolver which he stuck into the back of his jeans like he's seen it done in movies. For the record, never in a million years did he think he'd be walking through his house armed, his girlfriend with a shotgun and her best friend with a tennis racquet and a bat. But, he figured if he had to be stuck with two people during the zombie apocalypse, he was glad that it was these two. With Jade, he felt a little confident about his chances of survival and Cat... well, she just kinda balanced out his girlfriend's sunny disposition.
"I'm in dire need caffeine," Jade declared once they'd made sure that the house was safe and Beck had tried calling his parents. They weren't answering but it was probably the time difference between LA and Hawaii... Hopefully, that was it.
The three of them were in the kitchen, rooting around for food. There wasn't much and Beck regretted not having gone to the supermarket yesterday like he had planned. But Jade managed to get coffee going and Cat was cooking eggs.
Beck switched on the small television set on the kitchen counter and immediately they were shown images of the rampage that was taking place in downtown LA which instructions to leave the city. He was scared. Truly scared. "We need a plan."
"The plan is to not turn into a zombie," Jade deadpanned.
Cat nodded in agreement. "That sounds like a good plan."
"Jade, Cat, I think we need to—"
"No, Beck," his girlfriend cut in, placing her hand on his arm, "You two need to promise me that neither one of you is going to turn into some flesh-eating monster, okay?"
The fear and concern in Jade's eyes were startling and made Beck pull her to him, hugging her tightly. "I promise," he murmured.
...
Author's Notes:
My first Victorious fanfic! :] I love me some zombies! This has probably been done before but I couldn't help myself. C'mon. Imagine shirtless Beck with a shotgun? Phwar. Anyway, apologies if the chapter feels choppy. The flow should be better once all the characters make an appearance.
This is not a shippy fic. That simply means that ships will be present but they won't be at the center of the plot because this is about friendship more than romance. Only ship present as of now is Jade/Beck, but only because it's canon.