Chapter 12: Fighting For Hope

The smoke and fog was finally dissipating. It was still gloomy out, but it didn't seem as though Danville had been enduring an eternal night anymore. The sun could very faintly be seen through the mass of dark clouds spread throughout the morning sky. And that's just the sign the team needed to know that everything was going to be all right.

Phineas woke up bright and early. He let out a small yawn, feeling good as new. Perhaps it was because today could set everything right, or maybe because he had gotten enough food and sleep to become healthy again. Isabella ran through his mind all night, but he felt that this was okay. He knew that if he tried hard enough, he could get her back. He stepped out of his tent

"I take it you're feeling better." Ferb smiled. He saw that Phineas's optimism was coming back, and this made him happy.

"Yeah, I guess. I just think that everything's just going to get better from here. Maybe it's the sunlight getting back into my eyes; maybe it's the fact that we might actually set things right today. All I know is that things might actually look up for us."

"Well, I hope you keep that attitude in mind for the rest of the day, 'cause this ain't gonna be easy." Vanessa chuckled, and then stretched for a few seconds to limber herself up. "We're going to City Hall in about fifteen minutes, so I hope you're ready for some zombie ass-kicking!"

Phineas simply nodded. He grabbed a cup of coffee from the supply of food and beverages the group had stocked up on, and he took a sip from it. He wasn't sure what to expect once he got into City Hall, but he knew he'd have to have energy.

The entire group made small-talk for a few minutes, engaging in normal conversation for the first time since Danville had turned into the hellhole it was currently. Eventually, Vanessa's watch beeped, and she knew that it was time to go in.

Each member of the squad was covered in weaponry. Each member was not only given dual pistols and a machine gun, but also two katana blades each and a strap of grenades. Surge was fully loaded and ready to unload as much pain as he could on the zombies. Perry had gotten bombs, blades, and firearms from his compact weapons kit. Everyone was as ready as possible to charge into City Hall and get what they needed.

About ten minutes into the walk towards City Hall, Vanessa stumbled upon a small object that looked similar to a gun. It had rusted over completely and totally lost all color (and now was completely gray besides the rust that covered it), but it still looked like it was functional. Vanessa picked it up and decided to take it with her, not knowing what it was. The group kept on walking for a few more minutes until they finally approached the entrance. They busted open the doors and awaited the zombie onslaught.

The inside of City Hall was as bleak and dreadful as ever. The zombies had all become rotten, and their craving for flesh was more intense. Dead bodies were scattered across the floor from both starvation and previous attacks from the resistance effort. Dried blood encrusted the floors below the bodies. It was almost as if the whole population was losing life altogether. At most, it looked like they had five days left in them. However, they kept on working as if they had just started.

Once Phineas and the gang busted the door open, the zombies all shifted their focus on them. They kept coming forward. Everyone tried to hold back vomit as they all charged forward. While Phineas, Isabella, Candace, and Ferb all sliced through the zombie horde, Surge and Perry unloaded their explosive arsenals upon the army of the undead. Soon enough, several of the zombies were completely dead. Even though the team was sad that they had just killed that many people, they had a job to do. They marched forward.

Phineas walked to the control room with the rest of his team until he was stopped by a mysterious hand gripping his shoulder, rendering him unable to walk. He turned around in fear as he knew exactly what he was going to see.

The sight was gruesome. Clothes torn apart. Hair a wrangled mess. Nearly foaming at the mouth. Lifeless expression on the face. Smell of death throughout. Yet Phineas could easily identify the body of what used to be Isabella Garcia-Shapiro. And to him, it was the nail in the coffin to any hope he ever had of going back to the way things were. Seeing her this way just broke him down. She wasn't the young, carefree, beautiful maiden she once was. Now, she was a zombie. But there was no way Phineas could end the life of someone he held so dear, even if it wasn't actually her anymore. He fell onto the floor and struggled to get up. Tears streamed down his face. He was psychologically broken.

I woke up with the biggest stomachache. I don't even know how I lived. Apparently, the blow didn't hit anything vital, and I passed out from pain alone. I could see that my entire abdominal region was bandaged up. I struggled to get myself up on my feet and walk out, but the pain still made me feel hazy and weak. I fell several times trying to get out of my tent, but I eventually regained my strength.

Isabella started to move in closer towards Phineas.

Upon leaving my tent, I was greeted by the ecstatic and relieved faces of my friends. They told me that they weren't even completely sure that I was going to make it. Apparently, I was out for about a week and a half. They told me where we were: in downtown Danville, in a location the zombies rarely went to. The vacant lot was devoid of much trouble, and it wasn't very far from the mall. That made it easy to transport supplies, as they said. Vanessa, somehow, had cooked me a large, hot meal just this morning for when I woke up. She did it not only because she knew I'd be hungry, but also to retain faith in herself and everyone else that I'd be okay. I plowed through it and thanked Vanessa for the great food. Candace then sat down to talk to me. I asked her what she wanted to tell me, because it looked important from the look on her face.

She opened her mouth and positioned her face right in front of Phineas's arm.

"Phineas, we're all glad you've recovered from your injury. We didn't know if you'd even make it. You probably wouldn't have if it wasn't for Isabella. She somehow treated the wound well enough that she prevented it from being fatal. She tended to you for days, and had only left your side when she was sure there was nothing more she could do. Phineas, you owe her your life. Guard her as well as you can. Make sure you devote yourself to saving her, just as she did for you. And just remember never to let go of her. Always keep hope alive."

I owe her my life. Keep hope alive. Those words will remain with me as long as I live.

All of a sudden, Phineas felt Isabella's teeth sink into his arm. However, it wasn't the bite he was expecting. Playfully, Isabella shook her head around, pretending to be scary. It was at this point that Phineas knew: Isabella had not become a zombie. This gave him massive relief, and he started to laugh, but he also was angry that Isabella would scare him nearly to death like that and confused as to why.

"Phineas! Isabella! Get in here, we need your help!" Candace yelled, from the control room. The two walked inside the control room.

"Isabella, what can you tell me about how to hack into my dad's files?" Vanessa asked, logging on to the control room's supercomputer with her father's "super-secret" password.

"I can't tell you much, but I can get you close to what you're looking for." Isabella started fiddling through the computer, inputting several different codes and navigating through the computer's complex interface. The entire group was dumbfounded at what she could do. Soon enough, she had gotten to a page with a world map. It was filled with several dots. After she looked through them for several minutes, Vanessa discovered what they were. The orange dots on the map were places around the world where Heinz set up additional (although smaller) components to his new machine, presumably to help the blast from it travel worldwide. There was one red dot on the map, however: located in the center of Antarctica, Heinz had built a towering stronghold to serve as his base of operations.

Now knowing what they came to find out, the group exited the room, heading out of City Hall to prepare for their trip to Antarctica. However, an alarm quickly sounded and Heinz's voice could be heard on the intercom.

"So, all of you have found the location of my stronghold? Well, good luck getting there!" Back at his stronghold, he pushed a remote with a red button on it, causing all of City Hall to shake violently. All of a sudden, all of Heinz's wooden likenesses reformed themselves into globs of black goo. Several began bunching up into clusters, which caused the formation of gargantuan monsters.

"Take cover, guys! And plug your ears!" Vanessa screamed, pushing the button on the black box she was carrying. She ran away as fast as she could, as did the rest of the team. They all covered their ears as the box released a sound wave so great, it caused the gigantic, black, gooey creatures to shriek in terror.

Several of the larger Shadow Creatures disintegrated into many smaller creatures. Others were so denatured by the blast's conflicting with their formation that they all turned blue and started crushing some of the smaller Shadow Creatures. All in all, six regular large Shadow Creatures had formed, and four of the large blue Shadow Creatures formed as well. The four blue Creatures combated one black Creature each. The other two black Creatures raced after Phineas and the team.

The entire group tried to race out of City Hall as fast as they could. Surge shot at the two creatures as much as he could, but they just kept absorbing his blows. He tried to slice and explode them, but they'd keep reforming from the wreckage that had formed within seconds. Perry aided Surge by throwing pocket-sized grenades at the gargantuan beasts. Eventually, the two had worn down one of the Creatures so much that it completely collapsed into a pile of goo. However, the black Creatures had successfully gotten through the blue Creatures. Two had collapsed during combat, while two others plowed through their combatants with almost no trouble.

The remaining Creatures charged at Phineas and Ferb, ready to rip them apart. Surge shot as many rockets as he could at the two, but they just reformed into one gigantic Creature.

Vanessa and Candace sliced through and shot the Creature as many times as they could, and eventually, they broke it down to about half its size. Still, it was bigger than the two. All of a sudden, from behind, about thirty shuriken blades tore through the black goo of the Creature, causing it to collapse temporarily. A look behind the gooey mess revealed Isabella, positioned in a fighting stance.

"What? Most Fireside Girls got their 'Ninja Weapons Patch' pretty early on…Now get running!" Isabella ran towards the door as fast as she could; the rest of the team followed suit. Phineas was the second to make it out, while Ferb was third. Vanessa carried Perry out and escaped seconds after Ferb. Candace, however, had her feet caught in the goo.

All of a sudden, the gooey Creature reformed and grasped Candace. She screamed in terror as Phineas looked back and saw his older sister getting crushed by the gargantuan hunk of tar. He and Surge shot the Creature for about thirty seconds straight (and nearly ran out of ammunition) until it finally combusted again...this time, it did not get back up.

Candace crawled out of the sloppy mess that was left in the Creature's wake, however, she couldn't quite gather enough energy to move anymore. Surge picked her up and carried her to the front doors of City Hall. All of a sudden, everyone could hear another voiceover from Heinz.

"You think you're getting out of here? Over my dead body!" Heinz pushed another button in his stronghold, and metal doors came down, trapping Phineas, Candace, and Surge inside. All of a sudden, various parts of City Hall combusted into flames and started spreading throughout the entire building. Phineas cowered in fear at the thought of being burned alive.

Surge suddenly shot several blasts from his arm cannon at the metal obstruction. Within about twenty seconds, there was a clear opening for the three to get out. Phineas stared in a state of complete shock.

"What? Not everything has to be some impossibly hard predicament…Now let's get out of here before we get charred to death." Surge said to Phineas, calm as day. Phineas, realizing that Surge had a point in what he said, shrugged it off and jumped through the opening that was available. Surge jumped through it as well, carrying Candace over his shoulders.

As the group escaped from City Hall, which was now engulfed in flames, they set Candace down. After giving her a small checkup, Isabella walked up to Phineas.

"I'm sorry, Phineas…but she's pretty much been crushed alive. She's suffered some major internal wounds that look worse than the ones you had. The damage could prove to be…" She didn't want to say the last word, knowing it would crush Phineas inside.

"Fatal." Phineas said, hanging his head in depression. He ran over to Candace and held her head, kissing her forehead as many times as he could.

"Phineas…l-look. I'm not…g-g-going to…m-m-m-make it t-t-t-through this. I want you to…stop this…from getting any worse. Just take out Heinz. Do it…for me. For all of Danville…and the countless lives that Heinz…has ended. Goodbye…Phineas…I believe…in you." Candace coughed up blood a few times and then tilted her head to the side. She closed her eyes, and Phineas checked to find a pulse.

"He…he killed her…That psycho…THAT FUCKING PSYCHO! He is going to PAY for what he just did!" Phineas snapped at the loss of his sister. He was sure now that he was going to kill Heinz. He was shaking with rage and couldn't even stand straight. He collapsed into tears, and the rest of his group gathered around him to comfort him after such a loss.

"Guys…let's get to work on some kind of aircraft." Phineas stated, wiping streams of tears from his eyes. "I want this madman dead within two days."