Gumball ran quickly, trying to lose sight of the zombies advancing behind him.
As he ran, he frantically looked around for the principals office. He needed to get to the intercom in there. As Miss Simian had said, it was the only way to cure everyone at once. If just one person slipped through the net, it could happen all over again, just like it had already.
The zombies carried on following Gumball, desperate to catch him. It was hard for Gumball not to stand out, being bright blue, so there was no way he could shake them off. Unless... Gumball quickly ran into the art room and began to look around for what he was after. Then he found it. Perfect!
He was going to take a leaf out of Tobias's book. He could vaguely remember, when he was infected, that nobody went for Tobias because of his rainbow colouration. The zombies must have thought he was already infected, so they left him alone. Gumball picked up the paint bottles and began to squirt it out in to a pallet, before grabbing a brush and daubing it all over himself. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Plus, any other pretty colour he could find. A whole rainbow all over himself. But would it work?
There was only one way to find out.
Gumball walked back out the art room and saw the zombies standing there. He saw them looking, but they didn't seem to recognise this new technicolour cat. Either that or they thought he was one of them.
They all walked past, clearly thinking there was nobody else to get. Once they had, Gumball breathed a sigh of relief. It had worked! Now he really was grinning with joy!
He quickly began to look around again for the principals office. He stared at the lurid rainbow splatters on the walls, shivering. He couldn't believe he was once a zombie. But this time he was determined for it not to happen to him. They may have got Miss Simian, but they wouldn't get him!
Just then, he saw the door he was after. The principals office! He quickly ran over to it, trying not to attend any attention. The zombies could be lurking around, listening for any signs of things that aren't joy.
He pulled on the door handle, only to find it was locked! He thumped it hard with his fist, annoyed at this. But then he noticed the window in the door and saw there was a way in. He aimed the tape deck at the window and threw it. The glass in the window cracked, but didn't break.
Gumball stamped his feet in rage, but then quickly stopped when he remembered the zombies. He tried again, and this time the glass broke. Luckily, the tape deck was undamaged.
Gumball quickly climbed through the smashed window and into the office, with the tape deck under his arm. He ran over to the desk and put the tape deck under the microphone, and pressed the rewind button to wind the tape back.
Just as it was winding back however, he heard noises and saw zombies peering in the window.
Gumball screamed in terror, but luckily the tape deck had rewound the tape and he pressed play just in time
At once, the dark depressing tune of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata began to play all around the school through the intercom. As the tune played, the zombies all began to revert back to normal. Everybody was cured!
"YAY!" Gumball cheered. He'd done it!
Everyone stood around looking confused, almost as if they'd all been asleep and dreaming.
"Wh-what happened?" A very confused Darwin asked.
"The Joy Virus came back. I hate to say it, but you were the one who re-infected everyone." Gumball explained.
"Oh. I'm sorry!" Darwin said sadly.
"It's ok, it's over now." Gumball said. Miss Simian came over and patted Gumball on the back. Gumball was surprised at this.
"Good work, Watterson. You saved everybody." She said, smiling. Then she turned to everyone else. "And because I'm feeling generous, you can all have the rest of the day off!" She was glad it was all over too.
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYY!" All the children cheered. They all began to run towards the door.
"NO RUNNING IN THE HALLWAY!" Miss Simian screeched.
But they only ran faster, glad they could go home.
