The town was in chaos. People were screaming, cars were already on fire and smashed, and several of Jimmy Pesto's patrons just stomped around aimlessly. His son included.
"Hmm..." Gene Belcher squashed his face against the window. "I don't think I know this song..."
"That's because it's not a song, Gene," Bob tried to keep his voice calm. But damn it, the quiver snuck its way in there.
"Well that's just unfortunate father!" Gene sounded disappointed, "Because I was about to create the backing track!"
From nowhere it seemed, the boy had acquired his keyboard, and his dexterous fingers plucked out two keys and a fart sound.
"I-I don't think they'd appreciate it anyway, Gene," Bob advised. "Now let's all just-"
"Critics!" Gene was outraged, "you are a SCOURGE!" He yelled out the front door.
"GENE!" Bob held his son back, "now is not the time! We need to get upstairs and - wait, where's Tina?"
Both he and Gene looked around, as well as Louise and Lin, but his eldest child, quiet as she was, couldn't be seen.
"Maybe she's upstairs already?" Louise suggested with a shrug.
But then it happened. Linda's voice took on that panicky tone she reserved for those moments.
"Bobby! Bobby look!"
Bob's stomach wrenched.
"TINA!" He yelled, bursting out the front door and into the madness outside, "Tina, get back here!"
But his shouting fell on deaf ears. For Tina was currently distracted by someone else.
"Why hello Jimmy Junior," her voice was light and cheery, as Pesto's boy staggered towards her. "Fancy seeing you out here at this time."
"Tina!" Bob shouted again, struggling against sudden gusts to reach his unperturbed daughter. "Tina no!"
"Brainsss...?" Jimmy Junior gave a quiet mutter. The distance between him and Tina was closing with every shuffled step, but the young girl seemed completely oblivious to the unfolding bedlam around her.
"You're getting super close, Jimmy," her voice sounded almost... warm. "How are you today?"
"Tina, get back here!" Bob ordered against the wind and rain, but again to no avail. Jimmy Junior gave a little moan, and his arms swayed towards Tina.
"Aww, a hug?" She practically swelled, and offered her arms. Jimmy Junior twitched a little, and then staggered back a bit, before lunging.
"Tina!" Bob cried, and swung and arm around her waist, dragging her to safety just in time. Jimmy Junior's lunge just barely missed her, and the lad toppled over from his efforts.
"What? Dad, wait!" Tina protested, flailing to free herself from his grip. "I-I just wanna talk to Jimmy J-"
"Tina, listen very carefully," Bob held his daughter close. "Something's not right here. It's not safe. Do you understand me?"
"B-but Jimmy-" Tina began.
"TINA!" Bob's voice silenced her. "I don't want you putting yourself in danger like that! What kinda dad would I be if I did?!"
Tina swept her bangs out of her eyes, and took a good look around. There was broken glass and blood and fire and smashed things everywhere, and Jimmy Junior wasn't the only one acting weird either. Her eyes glazed over just a little as the gravity of it all finally set in.
"C'mon T, let's get back inside." Bob encouraged, and steered his daughter in the other direction. "Hunh? Lin? What're you guys doing out here?!"
"We've got a little situation, Bobby!" Linda cried, clinging Gene and Louise close to her. Bob glanced past her, and spied Hugo inside the store, just as lifeless and stompy as the rest of them.
"Ohhh, crap!" Bob exclaimed. "What'll we do now, Lin?!"
Without taking his eyes off the enclosing mob, some of whom were good acquaintances, some he barely knew, Bob stretched out and grabbed a broken chair leg that was conveniently on the ground a few feet from them all.
"Alright Lin, I think I can hold them back for a while," Bob gulped. "You take the kids and get far away from here. Far as you can, got it?!"
"B-but Bobby!" Linda stammered. "Don't do this to me Bobby! I don't wanna-"
"Lin! There's no time to argue!"
Bob tightened his grip around the chair leg, wielding it like a baseball bat. "Just get behind me, everyone. Once there's an opening, all of you run for-"
But Bob's train of thought was derailed by a car horn beeping animatedly at them.
"Quick, get in!" Ron shouted from his van, opening the passenger door and flailing at them.
"There's a better idea!" Louise screamed over all the madness, and Bob knocked one of Pesto's patrons sideways with the chair leg to clear a space.
"C'mon c'mon!" He beckoned, ushering everyone into the van. Slowly did the town's residents circle back around the van.
"Hah! Can't get us!" Bob laughed at the hapless zombies on the other side of the window. "Alright Ron, hit it!"
"...hit what?" A dumbfounded Ron just stared at him.
"Hit what..." Bob chuckled. "The gas, Ron. Get us outta here, buddy!"
"Can I hit the gas?" Gene interjected with a smirk.
"No, Gene."
"...I don't have the keys." Ron deadpanned.
"You don't have the keys?!"
"Hugo doesn't trust me with them."
"Dammit Hugo!" Bob roared at the window, where he could still see Hugo wandering aimlessly inside his little burger store. One of the zombies slashed at the window and cracked it, shocking Bob back to his senses.
"What do we do now, Ron?!" Bob flailed.
"I-I dunno, I just thought it was safer in here," Ron shrugged in response.
"Yeah, until they break in through the windows!" Bob cried, as bloodied hands hammered against the glass.
"...I hadn't thought that far ahead." Ron just smiled meekly.
"Oh God...!" Bob's voice jumped up a notch. "Lin, they're getting in!"
"It'll be okay Bobby, we'll think of something!" Linda tried to comfort her husband. "A-any ideas, kids!?"
"They're just misunderstood, Mom," Tina answered calmly.
"Perhaps some soothing music to help the situation?" Gene suggested, playing three dramatic keys on his keyboard.
"Not helping, you guys!" Bob panicked.
Meanwhile, Louise had had enough. "Alright, out of the way!"
She squirmed across from the passenger and seat into the footwell, "some space, please!"
Ron obliged, and pulled the seat back as far as it would go, while Louise pried off the panel under the steering wheel with a screwdriver.
"Louise...?!" Bob's voice was still panicked and angry. Where did she even get the screwdriver?
"Concentrating, dad!" Louise retorted, and pulled necessary things out of the way. "Knife anyone?!"
"Err... pliers?" Ron suggested, as a mottled, greying hand smashed through the window.
"That'll do!" Louise grabbed them from him, and scraped away the plastic covering on two wires, "Alright Ron, foot!"
"Foot where!"
"On the gas pedal!" Louise groaned, and pressed the wires together. The van's engine spluttered and gurgled, but with an angry roar, came to life.
"Go go go!" Louise ordered, and Ron floored the accelerator. The van bounced off down the road, knocking down anything in its way.
"Won't, turn!" Ron wrestled with the steering wheel.
"Try harder!" Bob cried, giving him a hand. There was a heavy thunk as something broke, and the van screamed around the corner, scratching against other cars and knocking down more residents. One of them splattered into the windscreen of the van, looking momentarily confused before attempting to smash the window with its stump of an arm.
"Alright, taped!" Louise called victoriously from the footwell.
"Music!" Gene fired up a pre-recorded techno beat from his keyboard.
"Wipers!" Bob cried, hitting the switch as Ron was preoccupied with trying to see. The wipers activated, but did absolutely nothing to remove the decaying zombie on the front of the van.
"...that always works in the movies!" Bob complained.
"On the contrary, father!" Gene raised a finger of knowledge. "This zombie must have seen all those movies, and prepared accordingly!"
"That's a lot of zombie movies..." Tina mused.
"A-Alright everyone, I've got an idea," said Ron. "Hold onto something, got it?"
Louise scrambled out of the footwell and joined the rest of her family, who anchored themselves the best they could.
"Hard, RIGHT!" Ron cried. The van screeched with indignation as it was forced around a tight corner, almost tipping over in the process. The zombie was launched off of it, and smashed through one of the windows of Wagstaff school.
"It's good!" Louise cackled in delight, only to loose her footing as the van swerved.
"Careful Louise honey!" Linda cried, and dragged her youngest close. "All of you, stay with me, got it?!"
"...so, any idea where we're going?" Ron asked after a while.
"You don't know?!" Bob exclaimed. "Then where were you driving?!"
"Away from the zombies." Ron shrugged.
"And then what? Just drive around in circles til we run outta gas?!" Bob flailed at him.
"...In hindsight that's a pretty bad idea," Ron reasoned. "I-I was hoping you'd have one."
"Well now I'll have to, won't I?!" Bob cried.
"Calm down Bobby!" Lin's soothing touch on his shoulder. "You'll think of something, just... take it easy, okay?!"
"Rather we'll think of one for you!" Gene decided.
"Pff. Alright then kids," Bob pinched at his nose. "Hit me."
Louise raised a fist.
"With your ideas, Louise!"
"Aww..." Louise pouted.
"Reach out to them and come to some kind of understanding?" Tina suggested.
"Charm them, with the power of dance!" Gene hit a chord.
"I've got a shotgun in the back?" Ron threw a thumb backwards.
"YES!"
"NO, Louise!"
"Let's just find somewhere safe first, Bobby!" Linda pleaded.
"Well maybe we should LOOK OUT!" Louise screamed again, and Ron barely had time to swerve and avoid the head-on collision. Tyres screeched in protest as the van struggled to slow down, yet the power line loomed ever closer.
"Ohh, goddd...!" Bob grabbed one of the kids and wrapped them close to his chest. Linda did the same with the other two. Ron fought and wrestled, but the old van just wouldn't allow it.
Glass smashed, and wood splintered.
