Chapter 11: Forever Lost

"Phineas! Wake up, we need to get going!" Isabella shook Phineas until he snapped out of his trance. She pulled him out of the tent. Without any notification whatsoever, everyone suddenly ran as fast as they could away from the site. Phineas and Isabella were behind everyone else, as Isabella needed to get Phineas up.

"Why are we running, Isabella?" Phineas was as tired as could be, as he had gotten no sleep all night. He had no energy whatsoever, but he continued running.

Then, Phineas looked behind him. Hundreds of zombies had found their hideout and were feeling a craving for human flesh. Phineas saw the terrifying horde of the undead and ran with Isabella as fast as he could. Eventually, they lost the zombies…or so they thought.

Once the squad got near the parking lot of the Danville Mall, they found themselves surrounded by about forty zombies. Surge took out his arm cannon and tried to shoot the zombies, but to no avail. He, apparently, had run out of ammo during the ambush that occurred the previous day. No one had any idea what to do.

Suddenly, Isabella jumped up into the air and kicked five zombies to the ground. "Guys, get away from here! I'm a skilled martial artist. I can hold them off; just get more food and ammo!"

The group did as she told, as they were confident that she could at least subdue the zombies and get away. However, Phineas was reluctant to go, and he kept his eye on Isabella as he ran away.

"Go! I'll be fine! I promise!" Isabella commanded Phineas to run along with the rest of the group before the zombies were surrounding him again. He did as he was told, running into the mall as fast as he could. Just as he was about to enter the building, he heard a loud, painful shriek. He knew it was Isabella. Was she hurt? Did she get bitten? He had to find out. He ran as fast as he could away from the mall.

"Phineas, get in here!" Candace yelled, knowing that Phineas'd be doomed if he stayed out for too long. She grabbed his arm and dragged him inside. Phineas, tears in his eyes, heard the painful screams ringing in his head over and over again. The very girl he had only recently realized he had fallen in love with had been either eaten alive or zombified by that pack of savages.

The mall was completely empty. Looking at it this way gave Phineas a strange feeling in his stomach every time he had come here to restock. However, everyone needed to get supplies. Candace was in charge of food. Vanessa was in charge of replacing ammunition for the team's weaponry. Ferb and Surge were in charge of refilling Surge's energy tank with tubes of Pizzazzium Infinionite, the most compact source of enough abundant energy to power Surge's circuits. Perry was off restocking his compact weapons kit at the secret miniature weaponry section of the mall, which was hidden in a deep, dark corner built by the O.W.C.A. specifically for agents to obtain weaponry for their daily missions. Phineas and Isabella were in charge of searching the perimeter so that no swarms of zombies could infiltrate the mall and attack the group.

Phineas stood near a wall, and closed his eyes. He lamented the fact that Isabella had surely become a zombie by now, and tears flowed down his eyes. He had just lost another friend. And this time, it was perhaps the greatest friend of them all.

Apparently, I had fainted soon after I got back into Danville. Just the sight of all of the people I had once knew in that condition…it was just sickening. However, we needed to look more throughout the town to see just what had happened.

The entire city was devoid of any regular life besides our team. We had seen acquaintances and family everywhere. I had to keep myself from vomiting as hard as I could, as their flesh was already rotting and the smell was rancid. Luckily, after about four hours of searching, we found a place where we could take refuge, at least for a little while.

We spent the night in Danville Middle School. It was sort of discomforting being in school in the middle of summer, but it was better than what the outside world could offer. Candace had busted open the doors to the auditorium with an emergency crowbar she found nearby and we all slept in the seats. It took about three hours for all of us to sleep.

While conversing about the events that had just taken place, Isabella and I discussed our kiss in the D. E. Inc. building. We talked about how much we meant to each other and we told each other how we felt (which also gave me insight into just how much of an airhead I had been for the last few years, seeing as I had not noticed a single hint of affection). However, we also decided that we wouldn't stress over a relationship while the city was undergoing a zombie apocalypse. So, we put things on hold and finally tried to escape into the bliss of sleep.

The next morning, we woke up. It was still dark as night inside the school, as the sky had not cleared up yet. We scouted the area for any zombies and eventually determined that the coast was clear. However, we noticed something peculiar after walking through the building.

In the Math room, we saw two boys. One was actually quite fair-skinned, but obviously a zombie. The other was paler than any other zombie we had seen before, and that's surprising, seeing as the other zombies were pretty damn pale. However, looking at them closely, I could make out clearly just who they were. Baljeet had somehow retained his daily habit of coming to school during summertime for some extra learning, even though he was clearly zombified and had no idea what he was even doing. Next to him, we could see Buford, obviously here for some sort of summer school class or something.

After about fifteen seconds, they noticed us walking in the halls. All of a sudden, they jumped through the classroom window and they started to chase us like rabid, hungry wolves. They were coming closer and closer with each passing second, and I didn't know what to do. I ran as fast as I could, but they eventually caught up to me and grabbed my leg. I closed my eyes as tightly as I could; I definitely didn't want to see what was about to happen to me.

Just as Buford was about to sink his rotting teeth inside my leg, I suddenly heard a painful groaning. I opened my eyes to see Surge's arm cannon shooting a fine laser into Buford's brain, which I assume had stunned him. He threw a chair to me with his other arm. Closing my eyes once again, I bashed their heads into the floor several times. By the fifth swing, they were coming back up and ready to kill. Next to me, I saw a fire extinguisher in its glass case. I busted it out of the case and hit them both square in the temple with it. Baljeet's head was nearly knocked off and the trailing puddle of blood showed me that the blow had killed him.

Buford, however, was a bigger person than Baljeet. He survived the blow, although the wound left on his head was still noticeable. I threw the extinguisher at him, hoping it'd hit him and kill him. However, he caught it and threw it to the ground, smashing it. The pressure of the extinguisher was released, and the hunk of metal went flying towards me. It was too quick to dodge.

The extinguisher hit me square in the stomach. I fell to the floor, feeling like I was going to die. I coughed up a few spurts of blood. The last things I saw were: Surge shooting darts into Buford, the darts exploding upon impact, Buford toppling to the ground, and the rest of my friends checking to see if I was okay.

"And I never thought I'd feel that kind of pain again…"

Phineas sat on the balcony of the upper floor of the Danville Mall. Twenty minutes passed, and there were no zombies in sight. As he was about to fall into unconsciousness due to lack of sleep, he heard footsteps. They were of the rest of his crew. They had gotten everything they needed, so it was time to head out. Surge was fully charged, Perry was restocked with weapons, Candace lugged around a bag full of food, and Vanessa had all of the weapons back in order, full of ammunition (with an extra stockpile in a bag she lugged around).

The group ate a meal and then headed back to camp, revitalized and ready for whatever may happen next. However, Phineas still seemed dead inside.

"She chose to fend for herself. There was nothing we could do." Candace held Phineas in as warm an embrace as she ever could. Ferb cut in for a moment and handed him a small, pink bow. "I found this on our way back. It might not bring her back, but it'll give you something to remember her by." Perry laid himself down onto Phineas's lap, only giving him his trademark chatter.

Phineas wore a half-smile on his face. "You guys know exactly how to cheer me up. Still, there's nothing that can bring me happiness at the moment. Nothing, except…her." He bent over, tears streaming down his face. His family patted him on the back and tried to comfort him in his greatest time of need.

About half an hour later, Vanessa exited her tent with a notebook in her hand. She sat down in front of the group and opened the notebook.

"Okay, everyone: I've come up with the basic framework of what we're going to do tomorrow. We're going to invade the City Hall Stronghold once again, but this time, we're not going to try to destroy the machine. Instead, we're going to plow through as many zombies as possible and then set this up." She pulled out a black box with a blue button on top of it, and presented it to everyone. "Remember those wooden sculptures the zombies were making during our last endeavor in the stronghold?" Phineas, Ferb, Candace, and Perry nodded.

"Well, they were each installed with a tiny purple orb in the back of their heads. My dad had once showed me a few blueprints he had for if he was ever to gain control of the tri-state area. The purple orbs will transform the miniature wooden sculptures into what he calls 'Shadow Creatures'. They're small, but they apparently pack quite the punch. Anyways, this black box will set off a strong sound wave. I'm not sure what it'll do, but if my calculations are correct, it'll be able to disable some of the Shadow Creatures. If we pull this off at just the right time, we'll be able to modify the frequency of some of the others to allow them to bend to our will."

"What's the cause of everyone building these creatures?" Phineas asked Vanessa, not knowing why Heinz would want even more minions aiding him in his mission.

"They're to wipe you guys out. He's given the zombies orders specifically not to kill me, but he's fine with doing away with the rest of you. Once you guys are gone, the zombies can complete the machine with ease and finish my father's complete world takeover. However, if we can take out some of these creatures and some of the zombies, we'll buy ourselves enough time so that we're able to go into the building's computer system. We'll hack into it so we'll find out where my father's currently controlling this entire operation. After that, we'll go up there, and set everything right."

"Can we restore all the zombies back to their human form?" Phineas asked this, obviously concerned mostly about Isabella's fate.

"I'm not sure. Maybe we could, but I'm not sure if anything can really be reversed. At any rate, we won't be able to bring anyone back to life. So, those two we battered up at the school are done for. Same goes for everyone we have killed and will be killing in City Hall."

This made the group very afraid and concerned. Not only did this mean that Buford and Baljeet had no chance of being brought back to life, but they weren't sure who exactly they had killed during their ambushes into City Hall. They were just fighting for their lives. They had no idea if they killed even more close friends or even dear family. Hell, there wasn't even a sure chance of saving everyone else. This thought coursed through the minds of each of the team members before they all shuddered at these facts. They could only hope for the best.

Everyone went to their tents and retired to bed. Phineas, although deeply saddened by the loss of Isabella, needed to be as optimistic as possible in such a desperate time. He was able to sleep, although his entire night was filled with nightmares of him losing everyone else he had left. Candace and Ferb had relatively easy times falling asleep, as they knew that their dreams were better than the hellhole they lived in. However, Perry walked into Vanessa's tent and decided to console her, for he knew what she had to be going through at the moment.

"Oh, hey. What're you doing up this late, Perry?" Perry crawled onto Vanessa's lap and looked her in the eye.

"Oh, who am I kidding? You know it as well as I do. My father's gone crazy, and we have to stop him. Odds are, we're going to end up having to kill him. But he's my father…I don't want to see him die, no matter what's happened in recent events. Look, I know this may be stressful for you to, seeing what your nemesis has done to our town. It's up to you, Perry. You have to take him out. If you can do that, I'll see if I can mess with the control panel enough that we can fix this whole thing and change things back to the way they were."

Perry nodded in agreement. Still, he wore a frown on his face, for he knew the same thing Vanessa had known, although did not want to admit, for quite some time now.

Heinz Doofenshmirtz had to die.