Thanks to everyone who reviewed :D Hearing that some people think this is one of the most badass stories they've ever read just makes me feel unimaginably excited to write the rest of this ^_^
Now, I'm going to have to tell you something. I have returned back to school, since winter break ended. Trust me, eighth grade is ANNOYING :( So, I may not be able to update this super quick, especially with how lengthy some of the chapters might get. So just keep that in mind that I can't update as fast as I'd like to. Also, sorry it's been a while getting this chapter up. Blame school, not me.
Also, this chapter has a scene with a psychiatrist in it. I don't pretend to know about psychiatric treatments or anything, so if anything is wrong, sorry :/
Blargh, enough talking. This is time for action! :)
Petey gulped, processing the situation in his head. Zombies? That was stuff in movies, books, comics. Not real life. Petey remembered when his uncle (who was a bit drunk at the time) decided to try to man-up Petey by making him watch a horror movie. Then, Petey was forced to watch Night of the Living Dead. The movie gave him nightmares for weeks. All he could think about was being trapped in his own house surrounded by zombies outside. Then he began to think about his little sister being bitten like the little girl in the movie and then she would attack and eat him. The thought had long since been forgotten by Petey, but now that that nightmare was becoming a reality, the frightening thoughts came back.
Petey sucked in a breath, trying to stay calm. "So…Gary…what do we do?" Petey hoped Gary had some kind of plan or something.
"Don't worry, Femme Boy," Gary said smoothly and calmly. "I've got a plan."
Oh thank God, Petey thought. "What's the plan, then?"
"Well, we distract the morons outside so we can sneak out of here. Then, we run over to Harrington House, bashing every undead brain we see."
"Why Harrington House?"
"Oh Peter, Peter, Peter, you simple boy." Gary slung an arm around Petey's shoulder, which made Petey really uncomfortable. "Those trust fund idiots are the perfect survivors to rescue! They have money and resources. We go over there, make them call one of their daddies to send us a helicopter, and then we get out of this hell hole."
"And if that doesn't work?"
"We take the Preppies with us to the school."
Petey stared at Gary, confused. "Why the school?"
Gary slapped his forehead. "C'mon Femme Boy! I expected more brain power from you!" Gary stepped away from Petey, letting his arm leaving Petey's shoulder, much to the boy's relief. "It's the largest building in all of Bullworth Academy and has multiple floors. We hole ourselves up there, board up all the windows and front doors of the first floor, go upstairs and make that our base."
Petey stared at him. "Have you…have you been planning for the zombie apocalypse or something?"
Gary gave him a dark grin. "Ya need to be ready for everything, Femme Boy."
Petey gulped. It was creepy how well prepared Gary was for this situation. Had he actually thought about a zombie attack before any of this happened? Petey, at first, found this unlikely. Then again, it was coming from Gary, and Petey knew he'd never understand what went on inside Gary's messed up head.
"You're very…odd, Gary," Petey muttered.
"And you're very homosexual, Petey," Gary shot back quickly.
Before Petey could respond, sobbing and screaming sounded from outside. Petey, not missing a beat, rushed and opened his door. He suddenly felt small arms wrap around his waist as a little boy sobbed and held on for dear life. Petey quickly recognized the small boy as Pedro.
"Pedro?" Petey said, confused.
"S-S-Slawter!" Pedro blubbered. "No e-eyes! Someone's h-h-hurting h-him!"
"Where?" Gary asked, little to no emotion in his voice.
"My b-bedroom!" Pedro managed, wiping snot from his nose.
Gary, readying his baseball bat, walked out into the hall. Petey's eyes widened as he ran out in the hall after Gary. "What the hell are you doing?"
Gary turned and glanced at Petey and the boy clinging to him from behind. "Something clever. By the way," Gary said, grabbing Petey's arm, "I'm going to need you."
"What?" Petey said, before he was tugged along by Gary. Gary kicked in Pedro's door with ease and dragged Petey inside. After a quick surveillance of the area, Gary saw the problem, and pulled Petey over to the window. "Gary, what are you-" Gary grabbed Petey by the back of the neck and thrust his head out of the broken window.
"Fresh meat!" Gary yelled out.
Petey looked out at the front of the dorm. The large group of zombies were huddled around some student, eating, when they all turned to Petey. "Oh my God! Oh my God! Gary stop it! STOP IT!" Petey pleaded.
Gary leaned in. "Don't worry, you'll be fine." Petey had no idea why that brought him just a tiny bit of comfort. Not much, but some. Must've been something in Gary's voice that made Petey feel…safe. Which was odd, because usually, whenever Petey was around Gary, he felt as though he was in danger.
The horde of zombies (and even the zombies at the Girls Dorm who had heard his screams) all began to rush towards the broken window, towards their new meal. Gary quickly pulled Petey back inside the room, dragging him back outside in the hall. Gary slammed the door shut behind him and ran back to Petey's room, Petey himself close behind.
"Are you insane?" Petey growled.
"It worked, didn't it, Femme Boy?"
Petey gave no response.
"Then shut up."
They reentered Petey's room where Pedro was on Petey's bed, hugging his knees, crying his eyes out. Gary barely noticed, while Petey left Gary's side to sit next to Pedro. Petey didn't have much of an idea of what to do, so he just patted Pedro on the back, hoping that might do something.
"Alright," Gary said sternly, "most of the zombies outside are now trying to get inside the kid's room. Since they're focused on that, we can probably escape out the front and get over to Harrington House."
"W-what if we s-s-see one of the z-z-zombies?" Pedro stuttered between tears.
Gary motioned to the baseball bat in his hands. "Bash their brains in."
The thought of zombie brains being smushed under the hand of Gary just made Pedro sob harder.
Petey sighed. If the zombie apocalypse was going to be hard, it was going to be even harder with Gary Smith around.
Johnny looked out the window of the Girls Dorm. It was a sickening sight to say the least. Dead bodies were strewn out across the campus. Stomachs ripped open, limbs torn off, blood everywhere. Johnny felt the bile rising in his throat, but he had to be strong. He had to be strong for Lola.
Lola weakly lifted her head. "Johnny…where are we?" she asked, sounding lightheaded. "Why is everything in pretty colors?"
Johnny sighed. Great, she's hallucinating, Johnny thought glumly. "Nothing, go to sleep."
Lola let her head rest on Johnny's shoulder and a second later began to snore.
Johnny returned his attention to the window. The undead were running around in packs, like goddamn wolves, eating everything in sight. Most of the girls in the dormitory had rushed outside at the signs of zombies inside, and were quickly picked off by the undead outside, which made Johnny guess that he and Lola were the only living things in the whole dorm.
That thought alone made Johnny shiver. He tried to wrap his head around all of this. The zombie apocalypse. World War Z (he'd seen that on a book at a store once). The end of days. What would happen? Johnny had seen plenty of zombie movies. Night of the Living Dead stuck out in his mind particularly. He remembered the black and white film, where the survivors were locked up in that house. He remembered how the guy (he thought his name was Ben) rallied everyone up and came up with a plan. He boarded up the house, he stayed brave for those around him, he took control, and most importantly, he did his best to keep everyone safe. Johnny would like to think he could do all that. Make sure everyone (especially Lola) was safe and stay brave, but Johnny had failed on both aspects. Lola had been bitten, and as much as Johnny tried to put it out of his mind, he knew what happened when a zombie bites someone. And on the aspect of bravery, Johnny sure as hell didn't feel so hot about all this. His knees quivered, he was sweating a lot, as if it were Summer, and Johnny couldn't conceal the steady sound of his teeth chattering.
When Johnny had been sent to Happy Volts he remembered the psychiatrist had tried to explain to him to focus on happy thoughts when he was angry. Johnny tried to remember what she said. He closed his eyes and focused on what he remembered.
"Johnny Vincent, I presume?" Johnny remembered the woman's voice and was surprised to find it comforting. The Greaser stepped inside the office, pushed roughly inside by an orderly. The door slammed behind him, leaving Johnny alone with his new psychiatrist.
Johnny looked around and set his eyes on the psychiatrist. She had long red hair, a nice figure and a cute face. It was pretty refreshing seeing someone like her, seeing as everyone else here was either an asshole or a crazy. "Yeah, that's me."
The psychiatrist (Johnny couldn't remember her name) gave him a warm smile. "Please, have a seat," she said, motioning over to the chair a few feet in front of her. Johnny took a seat as she said, fixing his leather jacket.
"So, have the orderlies explained to you that this is your psychiatric evaluation?" the psychiatrist asked.
Johnny nodded, a scowl on his face. "Yeah, but I can tell you right now Doc, I ain't crazy. Since when was getting angry classified as crazy? I don't belong here. I belong out there! I'm the king! What do you think the guys are gonna do without their king?"
The psychiatrist shook her head, making her red, fiery locks shake as she did. "Now, now, Johnny, nobody here has accused you of insanity. But your anger problems are a bit of a problem."
Johnny glared at the woman. "I got a right to be angry! The boys are laughing at me, I know it! My queen is a slut! And those Townie punks put me in here! How can I not be angry?"
The psychiatrist scribbled some notes on a paper. "Well Johnny, is there anyone you can talk to? A friend? Girlfriend? Your parents? Talking with others around you may help relieve some of that anger."
Johnny scoffed. "Please. I don't see how talking to my friends is gonna help me. My girlfriend is part of the problem, so I ain't talkin' to her. And my parents? They're in prison for the next five years. Plus, Bullworth isn't a place where kids express their feelings. That kinda crap gets you nothing."
More scribbling occurred, then the psychiatrist set her eyes back on Johnny. "I see," she said quietly. "So, you mentioned about your parents being in jail?"
Johnny flinched at the memory. "Yeah."
"I'm sorry to hear that." Considering the lack of emotion in her voice, Johnny doubted she felt all too sorry. "What were they incarcerated for?"
"Armed robbery," Johnny said, a hitch in his voice. "We uh…we were having money problems. It's tough, ya know, livin' in New Coventry."
"So do you live alone?"
"Me and my little sister live with my friend Peanut. His parents promised my parents they'd take care of me until they were released."
"That was nice of them," the psychiatrist said flatly. "Do you think one of the reasons you get so angry is because of your parents and how they can't be there for you?"
Johnny shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe."
The psychiatrist continued writing in her little notepad. "What do you feel is the best way to release your anger? As in, what do you do when you get angry?"
Johnny thought for a moment. "I usually work on my bikes. When that doesn't work, I beat the living crap out of someone. Usually a Preppy."
More notes were written, and then, "why a Preppy?"
Johnny scowled. "Why not? A bunch of stuck up jerks with a boatload of money, and they flaunt it in everyone's face. You know who needs that money? Me. Me and my sister. We need that kinda money. Right now, we're just barely getting by with Peanut's family. I'm sick of those bastards acting so high and mighty. I'm the one who's really high and mighty. Everybody knows Johnny Vincent. Ain't nobody in this dump of a town that's gonna cross me. Except those Preppies." Johnny began to unknowingly hit his palm with his fist.
"Haven't you heard violence is never the answer?"
Johnny laughed. "Lady, you've never been to Bullworth."
The psychiatrist sighed. "Johnny, you should know that violence isn't okay." Before Johnny could respond, the psychiatrist continued. "Maybe, when you get really angry, instead of reacting with violence, focus on something that makes you happy. You mentioned you liked bikes? Maybe think of yourself winning the world's greatest bike to calm yourself down. Happy thoughts like those help when one is stressed her aggravated."
Johnny thought for a moment. "I dunno about that…"
Before either of them could continue speaking, there was a knock on the door and in walked an orderly. "Sorry, Doc," the orderly said, "time's up. Gotta take the crazy back to his cage."
Johnny scowled at him. "Johnny Vincent ain't crazy, you hear me?" Johnny balled his hands into fists, forgetting all the psychiatrist had said about happy thoughts. "I've never been crazy in my life!"
"Yeah, yeah," the orderly droned on, not interested in what the Greaser had to say. He tugged Johnny out from his chair, and began to pull Johnny out of the room. Johnny growled and shoved the orderly off him, causing the orderly to almost trip and fall. The last thing Johnny saw as he was pushed out of the room was the psychiatrist looking disapproving of his acts and writing notes in her notepad.
Johnny wondered if what she said was true, if happy thoughts helped. Well, he might as well try. Johnny thought about racing the others on the greatest, fastest, smoothest bike in the world, but then Johnny realized there were zombies outside, and didn't think bikes would make him happy right now. He then thought of his friends, like Peanut and Norton, but he came to believe they might be dead already. He thought about his sister, but that only worried him more about her safety. Obviously his so called happy thoughts weren't working.
Johnny returned his attention to the window, and to his surprise, the zombies were leaving to crowd around the Boys Dorm. Johnny's head raced with questions as to why they'd be going towards the other dorm, but right now, it didn't matter, all that mattered was getting somewhere safe.
Johnny walked over to the door, after double checking to see all the zombies outside were gone, and kicked it open. Immediately, the smell of blood and dead bodies blasted at him. It was one of the worst smells he had ever smelled. Johnny scrunched up his nose and tried to ignore all the dead bodies around him. He noticed that the front gates were closed, so he was unable to leave Bullworth. With this in mind, he raced outside, Lola still in his arms, as he silently begged that he'd find somewhere safe.
The Preppies couldn't believe their eyes when they looked out the window. There wasn't a lot of them, the zombies. Only five or so outside. But the fact that there were zombies, actual zombies, terrified all of them. They also tried to forget that one of them looked a lot like Chad Morris.
Bif leaned against the wall, hyperventilating, trying desperately to regain his breath. Pinky was sobbing her eyes out at the image of so much blood and guts. Gord looked like he was going to have a heart attack, and Derby thought he heard him say something like "Oh God, they smell worse than the poor!" as the smell of them was beginning to waft inside Harrington House.
Derby, unlike the rest of them, seemed almost catatonic. He couldn't move. His mind raced. Zombies? Zombies weren't supposed to exist. Zombies only existed in those cheap, poorly made movies, or so he thought. How had they become a reality? Science experiment gone wrong? Some magic? No more room in Hell? All of these possible scenarios would usually sound like silly little ideas to Derby, but now that zombies were real, who's to say other crazy ideas might not exist as well.
While the rest of the Preppies were either catching their breaths, sobbing or muttering, Derby walked over to a corner at the far end of the room and pulled out his cell phone.
Daddy will get us out of this. Send a jet or something, Derby reasoned in his head.
He pushed down on one (he had his father on speed dial) and waited. Ring…ring…ring…And finally, his father answered.
"Who the hell is it?" Derby noted his father's voice sounded frantic.
"Daddy? It's me, Derby," Derby said.
"What is it? I'm busy right now, some ruffians have broken into the company building. Eating the security, my God…"
"The zombies! That's what I need from you! You need to send a jet or a- - -"
Derby's father cut him off. "I haven't got the time! Just stay there, you'll be fine!"
"But Dad- - -"
There was a click. He had hung up.
Gord looked over at Derby, who had his back turned to the rest of them. He noticed Derby's phone. "Did you call someone? Is anyone coming to get us?"
"The line's dead, couldn't talk to anyone."
Derby wondered if any of them noticed the sadness in his voice.
Algie tried to piece this all together in his head. Zombies. Actual, real, factual zombies. He'd fought them before, many times in fact, but back then, he was at a table rolling dice with a lucky streak behind him and the Sword of Anubis at his side. Now it was happening in real life, and there were no Swords of Anubis around to help him. He was no longer the brave hero known to many as Syrus Gold, he was just a kid without any weapons or strength to back him up.
Algie's heart quickened in its pace as he continued to hear the pounding feet behind them. There wasn't much time, and they needed to get somewhere. They had passed Harrington House because they saw zombies there as well, and they didn't feel like trying the auto shop since they both silently agreed that that area of the school probably wouldn't conceal or protect them enough from the zombies.
Algie wheezed and gasped for breath as his legs began to ache and his chest tightened up in reaction to the constant running. But he couldn't stop now. That, sadly enough, was not an option at this point.
Constantinos, who was running with ease beside Algie (Algie deduced that this was probably from his practice from running away from the Jocks. Algie wished he had acquired this useful trait), pointed up ahead, shouting "There!" Algie followed his finger to where he was pointing. His heart soared when he saw the library, and immediately burst into a quicker run at the notion that he'd be able to hide away at the library.
"Hey! Wait!" a voice shouted from behind the two runners. Neither looked back, but they didn't need to. Everyone at Bullworth knew that commanding voice. Soon enough, as they got closer to the library, Jimmy Hopkins ran up beside them, heaving and panting, but pushing on nonetheless.
"Going…to the library…for safety…" Algie managed in between his gasps (he didn't have asthma, but at the moment Algie wished he had an inhaler). He immediately felt safer with Jimmy at his side, knowing the boy had taken down most people at the school, even the likes of Russell and Gary. But how would he react to zombies? Would he be able to fend them off like Algie hoped he would for them, or would he cower like everyone else probably would? Algie knew Jimmy wasn't one to cower from things, but then again, this was a completely new threat: the undead.
Algie, Constantinos and Jimmy bolted up the small stairs to the library and immediately Jimmy tried to open the door. The doorknob didn't budge.
"Oh my God," Jimmy muttered, "it's locked."
"Of course it is!" Constantinos said glumly. "We're all gonna die because the door's locked. What a day."
Algie looked as the zombies caught sight of them and realized where their food was. Algie let out a cry to Jimmy when he saw the zombies, but Jimmy was in his own world, throwing his body weight against the door.
"Somebody open the door!" Jimmy yelled to the other side, hoping someone was in there. No answer. "Open it!" Jimmy continued. No answer. "OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR!"
But nobody answered his pleas. Jimmy could only gulp as he watched the oncoming zombies race towards them, mouths open, ready for their next meal.
And so concludes chapter two! :D Beatrice, Mandy, Russell, Kirby and Trent were absent from this because I wanted to keep up with the suspense of their cliffhangers. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I'M EVIL!
Recently, I've grown to appreciate the character of Johnny Vincent a lot more than usual, so that's why he gets a lot of screen time. Same with Derby, not screen time wise, but I've grown to really like him a lot more than I did before. It's so sad that I made his dad an unhelpful douche XD Them's the breaks, I guess.
This chapter is considerably shorter than the last one, but I reeeeeeeally wanted to get it out, so I skipped over Beatrice, Mandy, Russell, Trent and Kirby just so I wouldn't have to write as much. But as I said before, I also did it for the cliffness of those cliffhangers, so yeah ^_^ LAZINESS FOR THE WIN!…no? Why not? :(
So, did you like it? Psh, I know you did! And if you didn't, I know you're lying…right? XP Just kidding, but anyhoozel, it'd be super duper cool if you reviewed. Every time you review a zombie story, a puppy smiles. :D
