Fright of the Living Dead: Smosh Edition
Chapter Summary: Seven Smosh members race to flee the city via helicopter, but again, when as anything ever gone smoothly?
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters nor Smosh along with its connected enterprises. I only own this story.
"PETER!" Mari screamed, immediately recognizing her boyfriend and running up the stairs.
"Looks like she's happy," Ian jokingly remarked, "At least we have another ally."
Wes, Ian, and Keith immediately ran upstairs to the helipad, while Olivia followed soon after, carrying Courtney in her arms. As the quintet arrived on the roof, they gazed upon Mari and Peter in a tight embrace, with Mari crying tears of joy. Everyone else's loved ones had almost certainly been killed by now, and she was so glad that someone whom she had loved for so long was still with her. She kissed him passionately, not wanting to let him go.
"I'm so glad you're alive!" Mari exclaimed as she hugged her boyfriend tighter, "I so thought that I lost you!"
"I'll always be here, baby," Peter replied, as the couple continued their kiss.
"How long have they been kissing for?" Ian asked, surprised at the longevity of their embrace.
"Thirty seconds at least," Wes answered after checking his Rolex watch, "Going on forty-five seconds."
"Hey y'all, can we speed this up?" Keith questioned, not wanting to die, "I see a helicopter here, I think we should just leave."
"Right, sorry," Peter responded, as he walked towards the helicopter, "I know how to fly this, let's get in."
"Wait!" Mari interjected, noting something of interest, "There are seven of us, but only four seats!"
At that moment, they all looked at each other. They all knew what that would mean, but none of them wanted to believe it. Sure, they've lost people in the past, but to lose people simply due to a lack of room in an escape vehicle was unheard of.
"Alright, I'll make this simpler, I'll give up my seat," Ian declared, not wanting to burden the group.
"Hold on! I have an idea!" Olivia announced, running over to the helicopter and taking a seat in the back, with Courtney sitting on her lap, "Four people sit down, three people sit on their laps!"
"Alright, it's worth the shot!" Mari stated, "Everyone inside!"
As a result, everyone piled into the helicopter, climbing all over each other in an attempt to fit. Courtney remained on Olivia's lap, feeling the most safe with her female companion, Peter took the driver's seat, Ian sat next to Olivia, with Mari sitting on his lap, while Wes sat in the passenger's seat, with Keith scrambling to fit in the tiny cockpit.
"I can't fit!" Keith exclaimed whilst waving his arms and legs wildly, "Help!"
"Would you please calm down?" Wes insisted while being whacked by Keith's gyrating appendages.
What Keith had forgotten was that he was panicking right next to sensitive helicopter equipment. In his panicked frenzy, his right foot slammed against the large control panel, disabling the auto-pilot setting.
"Uh oh, this isn't good..." Peter remarked while desperately trying to restore function to the setting.
"My bad y'all..." Keith apologized, slowly backing out of the helicopter.
"Keith! Get in the back with us!" Olivia suggested, "I think we have enough room."
With that, Keith raced to the back seat and desperately leapt inside, landing on Courtney's injured leg. Courtney screamed in pain as Olivia desperately tried closing the door, but to no avail. Despite all of their re-positioning, they all just couldn't fit inside. As much as they all didn't want it to happen, one of them would have to stay behind.
"I called it," Ian claimed as he opened his door, "I'll stay behind."
"No, Ian!" Mari shouted as she grabbed onto Ian's shirt to prevent him from leaving, "You can't leave!"
"Do you see anyone else volunteering?" Ian asked, looking around at everyone else, "I'm telling you, I'm fine with it."
"Uh guys, look over there!" Peter interjected, pointing to the direction of the stairs. Everyone turned their heads to see what Peter was talking about. And to their shock, a horde of zombies were stumbling up the stairs. They had no clue about how they climbed up so fast, but they knew what they had to do: they had to leave NOW.
"Aw hell no!" Keith shouted, "Someone get out so we can live!"
At that moment, an idea appeared in Courtney's mind. She knew that she might very well bleed out before she can get any sort of medical attention, and even if she lasted long enough to make it to a surgeon, she would be slowing down the group due to her lack of mobility. She knew exactly what she had to do. She grabbed Olivia's handgun and rolled out of the helicopter onto the ground. With much effort, she stood up on her left leg, hopped away from the helicopter and began shooting at the horde.
"Courtney!" Olivia exclaimed, reaching out to grab her before being trampled by Keith, "What are you doing?!"
"I'll hold off the zombies!" Courtney declared whilst firing bullets into the corpses within the horde, "This is your chance to escape!"
"You heard her!" Keith shouted while situating herself on Olivia's lap, "Peter! It's time to go!"
Peter agreed wholeheartedly; there was no better opportunity to leave then now. He restarted the helicopter and declared, "Everybody in!"
And with that, Ian took his seat back and shut his door, Keith closed the other door and Peter lifted the crew straight into the air. Despite Olivia's attempts to open her door to try to save Courtney, Keith's position on her lap prevented her from opening it in time. By the time she could position herself by the window, all she could do was pound her fist on the glass and sobbing, while screaming, "NOOOOOOOOOO!" as the helicopter moved farther and farther away from the tower. Olivia could only stare in sadness as Courtney's hobbling figure continued to fire at the zombies, until it disappeared into a hazy mist.
Fifteen minutes later, the group was directed on a path towards Las Vegas. With enough luck, they would have enough time to rest, gather supplies, refuel, and travel straight to Ohio, where Wes believed that they could seek refuge with his relatives until further notice. By this time, each person was caught up in their own action. Peter was focused on flying the helicopter, knowing very well that it was his responsibility to get the crew to safety. Wes was staring off into the sky, thinking about the vast amounts of zombies roaming the streets. Mari was fast asleep, trying to build up her strength after carrying Sohinki for the past few hours. Ian had his eyes closed, rewinding through all the moments of him and Anthony in the past and trying to remember the good times. Olivia was still crying, but mostly due to her looking through her phone for pictures of her and Courtney to remember her by. Keith for once was calm, but it wasn't long before he initiated more conversation.
"So Peter, you also came to the airport to escape?" Keith asked, curious over his route to saving them.
"Actually, I was heading to New York for a cinematography seminar, but my flight got delayed," Peter explained, recalling the past few hours, "I was one of the first to notice the zombie apocalypse, so I immediately exited the airport, ran to the hangar, and got into the helicopter."
"How did you know that we would be at the airport?" Wes questioned, curious over Peter's thinking process.
"I went on "Find My iPhone" and tried to find Mari so I could save her. When I tracked her phone, it showed that she was running towards the hangar that I was on," Peter replied, continuing to keep eye contact with the sky, "I looked off the edge of the tower, saw a group of people running in, and rationalized that it was you."
"Wait a minute," Ian interrupted, wanting more information, "If you were upstairs the entire time, why didn't you help us earlier? You could've helped us save Anthony!"
"When I heard you guys below me, I started walking downstairs, but after I heard the gunshot and the panic, I ran back up, "Peter admitted, wincing at the piercing sound of the gunshot, "At least I helped save Keith."
"And I am grateful for that, man" Keith thanked, tapping Peter on the shoulder.
"At least someone here is happy..." Olivia muttered, still shedding tears.
"Olivia, we understand that this is a difficult time," Ian stated whilst rubbing Olivia's shoulder, "But we will always remember her sacrifice."
"She was such a good friend..." Olivia recalled as she wiped more tears from her eyes, "I don't think I'll ever be able to forget her..."
"Don't worry, Olivia," Keith consoled, hating to see his friend in sadness, "God willing, she will always be with us."
"Or...we might be with her..." Peter interjected whilst desperately pressing buttons on the control panel.
"What do you mean?" Ian asked, a bit concerned with Peter's statement.
"There appears to be some sort of malfunction with the engine," Peter replied, with his main focus still on the function of the aircraft.
"And that means...?" Keith asked, completely terrified of the answer that he would receive.
"I think we're going down..." Peter declared.
He didn't need to say more; they were all caught off guard by the sudden loss of power, and felt the helicopter beginning to descend. The sudden change of motion was enough to awake Mari from her slumber and Olivia from her saddened trance. They were 2,500 ft above ground; not high enough to cause breathing difficulties or hypothermia, but just enough that if they remained in the helicopter, they would hit the ground with enough force to kill them.
"Can't you slow us down?!" Olivia questioned, petrified by the prospect of dying.
"I can steer us, but I can't slow our descent," Peter admitted whilst trying to regain control of the helicopter.
"What are we supposed to do now?!" Mari exclaimed, fidgeting in panic in her seat.
"Hey!" Keith interjected whilst turning around, "We have parachutes!"
"Well don't just sit there, hand them to us!" Wes ordered, reaching his hand back to grab one.
And with that, an assembly line-esque system began. After taking one for himself, Keith began passing the parachutes to the others. But, like a scene in a cliché horror film, the assembly line unexpectedly stopped. Cause of stoppage: six survivors, only five parachutes. They could all do the math: one would be left without safety.
"Why cant the one person without a parachute just hug a person with one and hang on tight?" Olivia suggested, connecting the harness of a parachute.
"We're moving at a fast enough speed that the jerk of the parachute would cause the non-parachuted person to come loose of any sort of tie and plummet to the ground," Wes explained whilst snapping on the harness of his parachute.
"So someone's gotta stay behind then," Keith rationalized, snapping on his own parachute, "Rock-Paper-Scissors or Eeeny-Meeny-Mini-Mo?"
"No need for games to decide," Peter declared, his hands still furiously gripping the cyclic stick, "You guys go ahead; I'll stay and land this thing!"
"Are you sure?" Wes questioned, taken aback by the apparent sacrifice.
"I'm certain!" Peter insisted, continuing to try and regain control of the aircraft, "Go now!"
"That's good enough for me!" Olivia shouted as she grabbed hold of Keith, forcefully opened the door, and after a struggle with the sudden intake of air, the duo jumped out of the helicopter.
"C'mon Mari!" Ian interjected whilst pulling Mari's shirt, "Let's go!"
"No!" Mari responded, resisting Ian's attempts to pull her out.
"I'll see you guys later!" Wes declared, proceeding to jump out of the helicopter.
"Mari! You have to go now!" Peter shouted, turning to face her with a look of conviction.
"No! I won't!" Mari replied, grabbing onto Peter's shoulder, "If you die, we die together!"
"Mari, I love you too much to see you die. I may not be able to stop this from crashing, but I can surely slow down the horde for you all," Peter insisted, still looking into Mari's eyes, "Please, I'll be fine. Go and survive."
"I'm not leaving until Mari leaves," Ian declared, still grabbing onto Mari's shirt.
Mari thought about it for a little while longer. She was faced with the truth that she had been dreading: her boyfriend was willing to give up his life for her. She wanted someone who would be by her side and care for her as long as they could, and she couldn't ask more of Peter in that moment. She looked back at him, pulled him in for a kiss, and whispered to him, "I love you."
"I love you too," Peter said back, before returning to trying to steer the helicopter.
Ian then proceeded to jump out of the helicopter, and after one final shared gaze between her and her boyfriend, Mari jumped from the falling aircraft as well. She didn't look back as she didn't want to see the very last moment of her boyfriend's life. By then, her, along with Olivia, Keith, Ian, and Wes had pulled their parachutes and had begun descending back into Los Angeles. Thirty seconds later, all that could be heard was a deafening explosion, followed by the sound of flying shrapnel and flames. While none of them saw it, they all knew one thing for certain: Peter Kitch had died for them.
This chapter has been the most difficult to write so far, with the main reason being because of the high amounts of emotional bonds between Courtney & Olivia as well as Mari & Peter. I will promise you that no main characters will die in the next chapter, as it is time to back away from the topic of death for a little bit and bring in a little more of a calm surviving aspect to the story. In addition, I can confirm that Boze and Damien will make their debut in the next chapter as well. If I do get any readers at all, I encourage you to write a review. Give your thoughts. I'd like to see what opinions you have on where this could go.