Coach- combat shotgun
Ellis- hunting rifle
Nick- pistol, AK-47
Rochelle- assault rifle
The survivors calmly walked down the road, coming up to a school that read Romero High. The school looked more like a college campus than a high school.
"Looks like you'll have to repeat high school again Ellis," Nick said.
"Aren't you the comedian," Ellis shot back angrily.
"Do we have to go through the high school," Rochelle asked, turning to Coach.
The heavyset man looked around the road. Piles of cars and overturned diesels blocked the roads on both sides, leaving the school before them as their only way to pass.
"Looks that way," Coach answered to Rochelle. "Let's move people." The group followed Coach forward into the entrance building to the campus.
Ellis kicked open the door, getting the attention of a zombie dressed in a basketball jersey and shorts and a second zombie dressed in a blue, bloodied suit. Ellis fired a round from his hunting rifle through the sporty zombie's face and pierced a locker behind it. Nick fired two shots from his pistol, one in the stomach of the zombie in the suit, and the second through the chest. The infected hit the floor, blood oozing from their wounds.
Coach motioned his hand forward, raising his shotgun up and moving forward quietly. The halls were nearly pitch black, with the only light coming from the group's flashlights. The exit doors were blocked off by a pile of rubble, as the survivors soon learned.
"Damn it," Nick cursed.
The sound of a low, feral growl echoed throughout the halls. The survivors turned around, only to see a Hunter leaping out of the shadows and pounce Rochelle. Ellis swung his rifle up like a club, smashing the Hunter's chin. The agile zombie quickly flipped around and landed on all fours before leaping into cover in the darkness.
"Nick, let's get that thing," Coach shouted.
The conman and football coach ran down the halls while Ellis helped Rochelle up. The duo turned the corner, seeing another hallway cut off by rubble and no sign of the Hunter.
"What the hell, where'd it go," Nick asked.
"Maybe we should just let it go," Coach suggested. "Come on, let's check back with Rochelle and the others." Nick nodded then followed Coach back to the others.
Ellis and Rochelle were already on their way back to join up with Nick and Coach. They former duo nodded to the latter duo, and the survivors were on their way to look for another way around.
Navigating through the dark empty halls, Ellis shined his light on a sign above a door just to the right of him that read 'science room.' Nick stood next to Ellis, looking at the sign and placed a firm hand on the mechanic's shoulder.
"I'm guessing this and math wasn't your strong suit in school."
Ellis rolled his eyes then turned and looked through the window. It was empty, but a wall was broken down, leading further into the high school campus. Ellis turned and whistled for Coach and Rochelle.
The group gathered around the front of the door. Nick slowly turned the knob and pushed the door open. Ellis and Coach moved in first, shining their lights in every corner of the room to ensure that there weren't any hidden surprises. Nick and Rochelle backed into the room, making sure nothing tried to ambush them from behind. Ro closed the door and turned around, facing the same direction as the rest of the team.
Coach and Rochelle poked their heads around the corners of the destroyed wall, seeing a few zombies skulking around the open space. Coach motioned for Nick and Ellis to move up quietly to the nearest bit of cover behind and overturned table. The conman and mechanic quickly moved to the table and hid behind it. The movement remained unnoticed by the infected.
The gears in Coach's head started turning as he tried to think of a plan that didn't involve making a lot of noise and attracting even more zombies. Before he could come up with a foolproof plan, a strange, but all too familiar gurgling noise was heard. Coach and Rochelle both spun their heads up, seeing a bloated zombie, wearing a white polo with dark green stains on it, and broken glasses on his face, standing above them.
"BOOMER," Coach shouted as he raised up his shotgun. The Boomer unleashed a tidal wave of bile that covered Rochelle and Coach from head to toe.
Nick and Ellis heard Coach's scream before being drenched with Boomer puke. Ellis took aim at the fat zombie and fired as Nick turned his attention to the nearby zombies. The Boomer exploded, leaving nothing but the lower half of his body left, but the bile or Rochelle and Coach drew the attention of all the zombies.
"Shit," Nick shouted as he stood up from cover, "They're coming!"
Ellis turned around with a panicked look on his face before he started unloading into the horde of oncoming zombies. Nick held his pistol out with a straight arm and aimed high to blow holes in the zombies' heads. The zombie students and a few professors dropped, but there were more than Ellis and Nick could shoot alone.
Coach and Rochelle backed away, trying to clear the bile from their eyes to see exactly what was coming at them. Rochelle was the first to see the horde of zombies coming. Promptly, she raised her assault rifle up and fired into the mob, still moving back to the nearest wall.
Coach cleared his eyes and quickly raised his shotgun and started blasting. Zombie chunks flew through the air with blood streaming behind them. Rochelle and Coach both had their backs against the wall and fired into the mob of zombies coming at them.
"Over here you blood drooling fuck-tards," Nick shouted as he fired into the horde from behind. Ellis was busy reloading his hunting rifle. "Come on, pay attention you fucking idiots!"
"Nick be careful, one of them bullets might go through and hit Coach or Ro," Ellis pleaded. Nick turned with an angered expression on his face. "It's true, this one time me and Keith were-,"
"GOOD GOD! Are you fucking serious," Nick shouted, his face becoming red with rage. "You seriously can't believe that right NOW is a good time for one of your Keith stories!"
"Alright," Ellis shouted, firing a few rounds into the horde, "I'll tell you 'bout it later!"
After about a minute, the horde finally stopped. Piles of zombies lied around Coach and Rochelle from within the building, reaching all the way outside. Nick and Ellis reloaded their guns. Nick's pistol had run out of ammo, and Ellis' hunting rifle was low too.
"Is everyone alright," Coach asked, stepping over the zombie corpses with Rochelle following behind him.
"We're fine, you guys are the ones who got mobbed."
"I took a good hit," Coach said, pointing at two light claw marks on her forearm. "Other than a few scrapes and bruises we're good. We need to keep movin though, let's roll."
Suddenly, a patch of acid appeared in front of the survivors, causing them to jump back with fear.
"Spitter," Rochelle shouted. The guys looked up, seeing a Spitter in a cheerleading outfit, scampering across the rooftops.
"Oh that ain't right," Ellis muttered before raising his hunting rifle. One shot whizzed cleanly through the zombie's body, causing her to screech before falling off the roof and landing with acid coming out from its corpse.
"Hey Ellis, looks like your high school sweetheart," Nick joked with a playful jab.
"Oh ha-ha," Ellis rolled his eyes, but couldn't help it as a smirk crossed his face.
"Let's keep moving ya'll," Coach said with a huge grin on his face from Nick's joke.
The group headed for the school's library. The front doors were blown off from some type of explosive, hence the black burn marks on the walls. Coach and Nick moved in first, looking around everywhere, but saw nothing. Ellis and Rochelle moved in behind them, scanning the library and coming up with nothing.
"Just so you know: Ellis this is a library. It's where people come to read books." Ellis sighed, growing slightly annoyed with the jokes Nick was making. "Man I'm on a roll!"
"You know Nick, next time you need help, I ain't gonna help you until the very last second," Ellis replied.
"Oh please, I'm the man! I don't need help. I'll alert every last damn zombie in the area just to prove a point." Nick aimed his gun to a random part of the library and let loose with a stream of bullets across the library, hitting nearly every shelf and book.
Unbeknownst to the survivors, there was a witch with her hair tied back into a bun, round glasses on her face, wearing a white button up shirt and a tattered blue skirt. The skinny zombie became enraged with the sudden loud sounds and the papers raining down on and around her, as well as a few hard back books hitting her on the head.
Nick reloaded his empty weapon while Coach, Ellis, and Rochelle all looked around, waiting for a horde to come out any second.
"See, nothing happened," Nick boasted proudly. There was a sudden loud crash, causing everyone to look back, seeing the librarian Witch running at them.
"OH SHIT," Coach boomed.
"It was him," Nick shouted fearfully, pointing to Ellis as he ran to the side.
The Witch, unknown as to who startled her, decided to attack all the survivors. She backhanded Rochelle with enough force to lift her off her feet. The news reporter landed on a small children's table that broken under her weight.
Coach screamed with rage and fired, just as the Witch knocked the shotgun out of his hands. The large man screamed again and threw his giant fist across the Witch's face, causing it to stumble. The Witch shrieked with rage as she charged and rammed into Coach. The infected slammed the football coach's back against a bookshelf, knocking several books on them both.
The Witch turned around and charged at Ellis who fired a few sloppily aimed rounds at her. After the Witch quickly closed the distance, Ellis turned tail and ran for his life.
"This is why I've never liked libraries," Ellis screamed.
The mechanic quickly turned grabbed the heaviest, thickest book he could find and hurled it at the Witch. The infected librarian took one swipe and shredded the book to tiny pieces. Ellis yelped with fright before he continued to flee.
"Hey bitch," Nick shouted, "over here!"
The conman fired his AK into the back of the Witch, landing a few good shots. The Witch screamed in pain before turning around and sprinting full speed at Nick. The conman swore under his breath then ran the opposite direction. He soon ran into a dead end. One glance over his shoulder and Nick saw the Witch approaching fast. With no other options left, Nick started climbing the bookshelf in front of him.
Using the shelves as footholds and places to grab, Nick quickly scaled the wall of abandoned books. Nick looked down, seeing that the Witch didn't waste a second by following after him.
"Fuck," Nick shrieked as he climbed faster.
While he climbed, Nick started kicking some books down on the Witch to slow her down. It worked for awhile, before Nick got to the top of the bookshelf.
"Double fuck!"
Nick looked down, seeing the Witch was about two arm's length away. A crazy idea suddenly formed in Nick's head. The conman shifted his weight back, causing the bookshelf to lean back. As it fell backwards, books rained down on the carpeted ground, and the Witch fell with them. Nick dove to the side right before the bookshelf was about to land on the shrieking Witch. The conman rolled as he hit, also grunting before he came to a stop. He looked up and smiled that his bat-shit crazy plan worked. In the blink of an eye, the Witch exploded upward from the metal bookshelf, screaming with anger.
"Oh come on!" Nick quickly looked around, seeing no valuable weapon in sight and a brick wall directly behind him.
The Witch bore its teeth, its eyes flaring with rage and it screamed with blood thirst. Nick continued walking back until his back was firmly pressed against the wall. He had no more crazy plans this time as the Witch started sprinting full speed.
"Look out below," a thick southern drawl shouted.
Nick looked over, seeing another bookshelf falling on its side. The Witch turned its head and shrieked with anger or shock as the bookshelf crushed it from the waist down. The infected librarian whined and shrieked with pain as it tried to move its upper body free. Coach walked on the bookcase, adding his tremendous weight on the Witch's lower body. The infected shrieked in anger as it turned its head to glare daggers at Coach.
"Return notice," Coach began as he lowered the barrel of his shotgun to the Witch's face. A single blast from the shotgun blew a gaping hole in the Witch's head. "Overdue bitch!"
"Jesus Christ," Nick sighed out, "You couldn't wait to help me sooner?"
"I would, but that Witch seemed pissed off," Ellis replied, jogging into the clearing. "But I saved you with the bookshelf right? I got the idea from my buddy Keith. His truck was stuck in the mud on this hill between a downward slope and a huge rock. So me Keith and Dave get between the rock and the truck, put our backs against the rock and we placed our feet against the truck and pushed. It was so cool, the truck rolled down the hill like eight times and ran Keith's insurance through the roof! Oh man his parents were mad."
"Well at least nothing bad happened to him," Coach said.
"No, he got mauled by a cougar on our way down," Ellis added with a casual tone. Nick opened his mouth to say something, but was unable to find the proper words.
"Guys," Rochelle called out weakly, "A little help?"
"Oh shit, Ro," Ellis was the first to run towards her, followed by Nick, then Coach.
The news reported had crawled away from the broken table, but had a huge gash on her arm, and she was slightly disoriented from smashing through a table. Ellis helped her up and pulled her away from the table.
"You okay Ro," Coach asked, kneeling down.
"I'm fine." Rochelle winced in pain, tensing her arm as some blood oozed out of her wound.
"Yeah, you're about as fine as Keith in one of Ellis' stories," Nick replied. "We gotta get you patched up."
"I can do it," Ellis offered. "You guys watch out for zombies." Nick and Coach nodded then quickly stood up, turning away from the mechanic and news reporter. Nick and Coach stood a few feet away, keeping watch while Ellis fixed up Rochelle.
"I got a bad feelin about this man," Coach said, leaning towards Nick.
"Why, what's wrong Coach?"
"We're at a school and we've seen a nerdy Boomer, a cheerleader Spitter, and a librarian Bitch."
"Witch," Nick corrected.
"Whatever. I just got a bad feelin that I might get turned into a zombie at this school."
"We're immune Coach, at least I think we are. If we haven't gotten infected with all the bites, scratches, gashes, bruises, and whatever the hell other injuries we've gotten, then I don't think this school is going to be your grave."
"I hope you're right Nicholas."
"Hey guys," Ellis called out. Coach and Nick turned their heads, seeing Rochelle walking towards them with Ellis close by just in case. "She's okay, but I think we should rest a bit."
"I just hurt my arm Ellis, I can still walk."
"Still, one of us should hold onto your gun for a bit," Nick suggested. Rochelle nodded in agreement then handed her gun out in front of her. Ellis took it carefully as he threw his hunting rifle on his back. "Alright toots, you might have to stick close to us for now. Or you could grab a dictionary and start whacking zombies."
"No thanks," Rochelle replied with a chuckle.
The survivors moved through the schoolyard, watching out for any type of movement. So far everything seemed dead and quiet. The gang found the back wall had been broken down, allowing them to quickly escape the school grounds. Outside was a school bus which was heavily fortified with grating on the windows, a snow plow looking blade on the front, and spikes on the hubcaps of the tires.
"I like how this guy travels," Nick stated with an impressed tone.
"Let's hope the keys are still inside," Coach muttered, quickly moving up to the bus. The other three survivors stood outside, waiting on something. Coach leaned out of the bus door with a huge grin on his face. "We're in business baby!"
"That's what I like to hear," Nick shouted excitedly as he moved up to the bus quickly. Coach let out a laugh of triumph as he moved back into the bus while Nick followed behind him.
"You okay Ro," Ellis asked.
"Yeah sweetie, I'm fine. I just want to get moving." Ellis smiled then escorted Rochelle to the door of the bus, just as Coach turned the key, bringing the engine roaring with life.
"All aboard, next stop: anywhere but here!"
As Ellis and Ro got on, Coach pulled the door shut. Ellis sat Rochelle sat a few seats down in front of Nick and the mechanic himself took the seat across from her. Nick was towards the back, busy looking for anything worthy of scavenging. Coach didn't waste another minute and floored the breaks, shooting the bus down the road to salvation.
Yeah, so how about that? I'm not dead yet, and this chapter didn't take three months to post. I hope you all enjoyed it. I'll work on the next chapter once I get a better idea of where this story is going to go. Just a reminder though: it's going to be much shorter than Back 4 More, so this one won't be much longer. The good news is after this I'm making the sequel to Back 4 More, so no worries. Until then, please leave reviews =)
