Exactly 1 month later I have finally gotten another chapter out. I've had a pretty busy time and I know the upcoming month and a half is going to be similar so I have no idea when I'll be posting another chapter after this but I know my loyal fans will enjoy it all the same. I just want to thank all the people who have read and given me feedback because it's been pretty much all positive and that means I must be doing something right. Especially after the reaction to the last chapter; oh boy did you guys enjoy that one! I thought I was going to get butchered for killing off so many characters but it seems to have worked. Just wait for what I have in store for you here.
Also just a casual reminder I put in almost every chapter, I do have a poll up in my profile for voting for the characters you most want to survive. It used to only include the original characters but season four cast members are in it now too. Don't forget, these votes may have a small impact on how I write the story (but only so much haha).
But without further adieu, enjoy chapter 13!
WARNING: This story may contain scenes of swearing, violence, sexual activities and character deaths.
"And the next thing I knew, my instructor was yelling at me to run laps till sunset! My boots have never smelled so rank!" Brick exclaimed and Courtney couldn't help herself from laughing at his story as the pair partook in the scavenging mission.
"That's why you should never break the rules." Courtney chided lightly and almost giggled.
Currently the two of them, along with Trent, Duncan, Jo and Alejandro were on the outskirts of a nearby village Jo had decided was to be the location of their search. Jo and Al were leading the way, each carrying a shotgun and had a blade of some kind at their belts. All six of them were locked and loaded, after Jo had granted permission for them to have access to weapons once outside the base.
Courtney and Brick were in the middle of the formation, not too far back from the leaders. They had already bonded over their time together, and the friendship seemed only to grow stronger as the hours went by. This was not unnoticed by Duncan, who walked with Trent at the back. The delinquent just grit his teeth and tapped the pistol repeatedly against his side.
"My boots have never smelled so rank!" Duncan mocked in a low voice and rolled his eyes, "Please, this guy's such a loser."
"Jealous are we?" Trent teased him, but the look Duncan gave him made him think twice about it.
"I wouldn't recommend you start mouthing off on me considering I was the one who graciously let you go after Gwen." Duncan reminded him, though both boys felt a pang of sadness at the mention of both of their former girlfriend.
"Trust me I haven't forgotten," Trent whispered softly, "I think about it, and her, every day. How we just left her there..."
"Courtney had to make a choice." Duncan stated firmly, trying not to think about his own doubts about the call to leave the others behind, "There's nothing to be done about it now."
Up ahead, Courtney was now making Brick laugh after telling some story about rock climbing with a girl named Tiffany. Duncan internally squirmed, but Trent put a comforting hand on his shoulder and suggested they just try and forget about girls for the time being. Duncan didn't reply.
After walking for another thirty minutes, Jo put up a hand and they all crowded around her, "Alright maggots, the town is just over this ridge. We'll split into two teams of three and divide the town in half. Team one takes the west side, team two takes the east."
"A very wise idea." Alejandro commented, "So what are the groups going to be?"
Duncan moved to say something but Jo beat him to it, "Me, Private Leaks-a-lot, and CIT will be the first group. Number Nine, Ale-handout and Delinquent will be the second group. Now let's move!"
Brick and Courtney seemed perfectly happy with their group, but Alejandro gave a look to Duncan and Trent and muttered, "Delightful..."
"Try not to cause too many problems, okay boys?" Courtney said jokingly to the trio.
"Ma'am, I must remind you that I'm a boy and I'm on your team." Brick informed her.
"You aren't the one I expect to make a mistake." Courtney pointed out, giving a sly and amused look at Duncan. He didn't meet her gaze.
"Enough chatter then," Alejandro spoke, "come along men, we have much to do." And with that, the groups split up to begin their various scavenging adventures.
The nine survivors of the hotel fiasco were still standing together as one just outside the room they'd piled all the dead bodies in. Heather's accusatory words still fresh in everyone's mind, and now distrust was beginning to form.
"Nobody leave this room," Noah said angrily as it began to dawn on him, "someone in here must have let those zombies in. There's no other explanation."
"That can't be true." Zoey wailed, "No one here would do such a thing."
"Oh really?" Noah raised an eyebrow and glanced at Heather, "Did you all happen to forget we're in a room with a notorious backstabber who became famous for being shady on television?"
"You want to accuse me?" Heather asked angrily; she was met with a stern look, "I just saved your life a few minutes ago you ungrateful dork!"
"I saw your show too," Scott piped up, "I can't say I exactly trust you."
"You don't trust me?" Heather scoffed, "Well that's hysterical considering you're the one who injured my ankle. How do we know it wasn't you?"
"Figures, the newcomers want to blame those of us who have been here longer." Scott shook his head with disgust and now addressed primarily Dakota, Lightning, Dawn, Zoey and Mike, "Friends you see what's happening here right? These people who have come here want us out!"
"Hold on now, you're turning this on me too?" Noah asked angrily.
"You two," Scott pointed at Noah and Heather, "you both pitched a fit about Jo not letting you have access to weapons. Wanted to get a little revenge did we? Well you didn't fool me!"
"Oh but she doesn't classify as 'one of us'?" Heather hissed at him, pointing at Bridgette who was staring vacantly off into space; her mind a million miles from here, "Have a little crush on surfer girl huh? Wanted Geoff out of the way so you could have her to yourself you sick bastard?"
"Scott might be sha-right." Lightning said nervously, "Noah's always making rude comments and shit. Doesn't like us much."
"So you think I would do something this stupid?" Noah laughed at him, "I was reading in my room the whole time, I didn't even know we were under attack."
"It's true," Dawn piped up, "when I realized what was happening, I fled to Noah's room and found him unperturbed."
"Probably because he set the whole thing up with the queen over here." Scott jerked a thumb at Heather, "It's all an act!"
"You desperate son of a bitch!" Heather growled at him, "I have nothing to gain in doing something like that."
"And you're delusional if you think Heather and I orchestrated this together." Noah rolled his eyes.
"Well where was Heather then when this started?" Scott challenged, "No one can account for her whereabouts."
"I went back to my room after DJ and Katie wanted to do some stupid get-to-know-you thing." Heather explained.
"And where are those two to vouch for that statement now?" Scott hissed and it seemed he may have convinced some people gathered.
"Heather was talking to me for a while." Dakota pointed out, "That must count for something."
"But there would've been plenty of time for her to let those things in during the time between talking to DJ and Katie and the time she spent with you." Mike finally added to the conversation, "I think Scott's right, Heather did this."
"You really think so Mike?" Zoey asked, scared out of her mind. Mike nodded at her.
"I sha-think she sha-did it too." Lightning added his consent and before Heather knew it, the majority was against her.
"Someone grab her," Scott ordered, "we can't risk her or Noah trying anything else now that we've figured them out."
"You're joking right?" Noah asked as he slowly started to back away.
"Stop trying to run then." Scott smirked.
"If you were told you were about to be grabbed by people who think you committed murder, would you not run?" Noah asked sarcastically.
"Everyone shut the fuck up." Bridgette surprised a couple of people with her words as she finally rose to her feet, "There's no proof, none. Against anybody. So stop this, this isn't Total Drama you guys this is real life. My Geoff..."
She faltered and broke into another fit of hysterics, but her speech had the desired effect. Now people were all glancing warily at each other, but no one made any move to seize Heather or Noah. Dawn knelt down to comfort Bridgette and she said quietly, "We must wait for Jo and the others to come back before we pass judgment on anybody."
"Fine," Scott sneered and glared at Noah and Heather, "but just so the pair of you know, you won't be around much longer!"
Scott stalked off and that seemed to trigger everybody into departing the room themselves. Mike made a move to follow Scott, which prompted Zoey to ask, "Why are you going after him?"
"Someone needs to check on him Zo," Mike used his nickname for her and gave her a quick kiss, "We're all just stressed out and I don't want him to do anything reckless."
Zoey smiled and returned the kiss, "You're such a great guy Mike, you're heart is always in the right place."
"Yup, always right here." Mike patted his chest with a broad smile that she managed to return.
"You're such a goober." Zoey laughed but then consented into allowing him to go after Scott. As soon as Mike was away from Zoey, he rolled his eyes and let out the exasperated sigh he'd been holding in. Good lord it was tedious and exhausting to deal with that girl; but he had to keep up the pretenses. He had to make her think he was still Mike.
'Mike' found Scott outside the hotel, grumbling to himself and scanning the perimeter to see if the noise had attracted any other zombies. As soon as the MPD located him, he approached.
"Something the matter?" Mal asked deviously.
"I need those two gone." Scott replied, referring to Noah and Heather, "Once they're gone, I just need to get rid of Alejandro and I win."
"Surely you cannot blame me," Mal told him, "my information was correct. I told you about the key to get into Cameron's lab; the foolish boy could never keep a secret. And now we're down to seven less people. Regretting it?"
"No," Scott answered honestly, "no I don't regret it, and I appreciate your help."
"Was Heather correct?" Mal asked, his eyes sparkling with interest, "About Bridgette?"
Scott gave him a look, but he did not verbally answer him. Instead, the dirt farmer asked, "Why did you help me with this anyway? What do you gain from it all?"
"What do I gain?" Mal repeated, "Oh, I gain a great many things that you wouldn't understand."
"Will you help me make sure those two don't weasel their ways out of this?" Scott asked, assuming the answer.
"You can count on it." Mal told him with a sinister smile.
Zoey was returning to her room, having mostly recovered from the horrors of earlier that day. Out of everybody still at the hotel, she considered herself to be one of the luckiest people; she should be dead. It was a nagging feeling in the back of her mind that Heather had snapped her out of her worry over Mike and made her contribute to their survival. Would Heather really have done that if she was the one who let the zombies in originally?
"Your aura is confused, a stormy grey." Zoey nearly jumped when she realized Dawn was waiting for her in her room, "I know what troubles you Zoey, it troubles me too."
"Dawn you scared me." Zoey put a hand over her heart for a moment, "And I'm just really freaked about what's going on. I couldn't imagine anyone being so heartless..."
"Perhaps you should choose who you open up to a bit more carefully." Dawn said calmly and Zoey raised an eyebrow.
"The only person I truly opened up to is Mike...wait a minute, why would you say that?" Zoey asked angrily.
"Something Staci said that's stuck with me," Dawn said creepily as she repeated something Staci had told them all earlier, "death follows Mike."
"I remember she said that," Zoey snapped at her, "so what? She was ill-"
"Your love of Mike blinds you," Dawn told her and she faltered, "you are a strong, smart girl. But when it comes to him, you are foolish. That's what Heather tried to warn you about earlier; that's what I am saying to you now."
"How dare you tell me who I can and can't love!" Zoey actually shouted at her, "Now get out, get out!"
"Don't forget what I said." Dawn said coldly, if she could say anything coldly that is, but she obliged and left the room.
Zoey closed the door behind her and wept. What if they were right? She had been there when Staci said that about Mike; and Staci had predicted the seven deaths too. Surely that was all coincidence; or was it? Zoey put her head in her hands: she had never been good at making decisions or drawing conclusions. But there was a strange gut urge that was telling her that at the very least, the Mike situation was worth looking in to.
"What gives those lousy, low-life losers the right?" Heather was seething in Noah's room to the bookworm and a fairly despondent Bridgette. The door was closed and locked so the trio could have privacy, "We didn't do shit to make this happen! We lost three of our own!"
"Scott wanted to turn this into an 'us versus them' game." Noah said bitterly and glanced over at Bridgette, "Aren't you friend-ish with Scott?"
"Who cares?" Bridgette said glumly, "We're all just going to die anyway-"
Bridgette didn't recoil but she did stop talking as Heather's palm slapped her across the face and left a red mark. The queen bee glared at her and said, "Listen, I understand you feel awful right now. Losing Geoff and the others was hard, but you have got to get it together okay?"
"Do you even care?" Bridgette replied, staring Heather down, "I mean honestly, what have you lost compared to the rest of us?"
"Excuse me?" Heather asked darkly.
"The rest of us have all lost people we truly care about, but you," Bridgette hesitated, "do you really even care about anyone but yourself?"
"Of course I care!" Heather exploded, "You think I enjoy watching the people I know get ripped apart right in front of me?"
"You never cared about the rest of us on the show, we've experienced that for three years." Bridgette held her ground.
"You think I don't regret not making amends?" Heather choked out and with a start Noah observed her eyes were brimming with tears, "I think about them every day, and every night. I think about Lindsay and Beth; how awful I was to them. Poor Beth just needed a friend to keep her grounded; maybe she'd still be here if I had been that person. I think about Gwen and LeShawna: two people I have fought with the most in my life. We abandoned them and I never said I was sorry. And now Katie..."
Heather faltered for only a moment, "The last thing I said to her was insulting, degrading. I made her feel pathetic. How am I supposed to forgive myself for that?"
"Heather," Bridgette started but she wasn't done yet.
"But I have kept it together thus far, and you need to do the same." Heather said whilst crying, but that determination and fire was back, "Duncan, Trent, Alejandro, Courtney, and the three of us. We seven are a pack, you understand? We need each other, I've grown to accept and embrace that. So we cannot afford to fall apart now or we all go down."
"Wow," Noah sounded genuinely shocked at the speech, "I never would've pegged Heather to be the one who made me feel like maybe there was still a point to surviving."
Heather merely nodded at him before turning to Bridgette, locking gazes with her once more. There used to be bad blood between the pair but an understanding had passed between them. Bridgette shakily rose to her feet and offered Heather a hand of truce; Heather took it.
"You're right." Bridgette said, brushing off tears of her own, "And we have to keep fighting for those we've lost. Geoff, Gwen, DJ, Katie, all of them."
Bridgette and Heather hugged for a long moment. Noah watched and said with slight amusement, "How touching-no wait! Ugh."
They had pulled him into the embrace as well, but despite his attitude he did not complain. The three just accepted each other then and there; they were together. It was them against the world. Finally they broke apart and a newfound loyalty and confidence was inside each of the trio.
"Now let's find a way to prove to these sons of bitches that we're innocent." Heather stated to the nodding of the other two.
Brick, Courtney and Jo had found themselves in a department store and after a brief examination, they had determined there were no threats inside. Now the three of them were thoroughly searching for anything of use, each with guns out just in case.
"Found something." Brick said and held up a few cylindrical containers, "Oh, never mind just hair spray."
"Maybe Anne Maria will like it," Jo shrugged and Brick put one in his pack just for her, "hey check these out."
Jo was browsing through an aisle of clothes and she took a dress of the rack and showed it to Courtney. Courtney raised an eyebrow: the dress would be perfect for Jo's style.
"Funny," Courtney said with a light smile, "I wouldn't have imagined you as the type to care about this sort of stuff."
"Sometimes a girl has to live a little." Jo remarked, sharing the smile as the two continued forming a dangerous friendship of their own.
"A little fun huh?" Courtney said as she eyed up a very risqué dress, "Maybe I could wear this someday."
"Seems way out of your comfort zone ma'am." Brick pointed out, "But this is still a free country so go for it. Trying to impress anybody in particular?"
"Please, we all know who she has the hots for." Jo said with a smirk, "It's a classic tale of good girl meets bad boy."
"Whatever," Courtney flushed but took the dress anyway, "maybe I'll be the bad girl for a change."
"You know, I'm really liking our pact." Jo told her honestly, "You seem great. Some others in your group I'm a little less prone to liking, but you have a place with us for however long you want."
"Well the offer is appreciated." Courtney responded in kind, "And I do understand the precautions you've taken so far, so nothing is held against you. I'll definitely talk to my group once we get back about making this a permanent deal if that's what you're thinking."
"There's always safety in numbers." Brick put a supportive hand on each of the ladies' shoulders. Then his eyes lit up as he spotted something across the room, "Flashlights! We could seriously use some of those!"
He scampered over to load up his bag with the items as Jo muttered something about how he was absurdly afraid of the dark. That left the two girls to themselves for a minute, and it inspired Courtney to ask something that had been on her mind for a while.
"Hey Jo can I ask you something?" Courtney inquired and the female jock nodded, "You mentioned a while back another group of survivors who caused some problems for you guys. What exactly happened with them?"
Jo's eyes darkened as she recalled some memories, and for a second Courtney thought she'd crossed a line. But Jo sighed and said, "There used to be a lot more of us, surviving you know? We were once a group of nearly thirty."
"We were once a group of twenty seven." Courtney recalled as faces of many of her deceased friends flashed before her eyes.
Jo simply nodded and continued, "Anyway, one day a couple of other people we'd never seen before found our hotel. At first they seemed friendly, they seemed trustworthy. We were foolish and naive and let them in after they assured us they could help. When I woke up the next day, half our supplies were gone and half our group was dead. Those bastards backstabbed us and nearly destroyed everything. Would have too if not for the zombies who came. Who would've thought I would owe my life to a zombie horde?"
Jo laughed hollowly, "We learned not to trust people after that, so we were just going to kill you guys. Good thing we didn't I guess."
"Indeed." Courtney nodded thankfully, remembering how she was nearly shot on that highway by Jo, "I'm sorry for your losses, I know what it's like to sustain that sort of stuff."
"I don't like to live in the past." Jo said with a shrug as she and Courtney came up to a medicine counter, "Ah, jackpot. Start loading this shit up and then we'll hit the snacks. Lord knows feeding over twenty people is a real bitch."
Courtney nodded and aided her in placing medicine in their bags. And the CIT was pleased with how Jo was opening up to her more and more; she felt as if she understood these people a lot better. Even the more aggressive ones she could connect with, because she'd experienced the same thing. She didn't even want to think about how much blood was already on her hands. Or how much more blood there might end up being.
There wasn't too much chatter going on between Alejandro, Duncan and Trent. It was no secret that Duncan harbored dislike for the Spaniard, despite what Alejandro had done for him on the highway. Trent had never cared much for him either, despite not having much of a relationship with him. He just knew him to be the male-Heather; and that could only mean bad things. And Alejandro had little interest in speaking to either of them as it was; he was preoccupied thinking about Heather. The two hadn't left off on great terms and he wondered what was going to happen when he got back.
"Hey," Duncan spoke and got the others' attention as he pointed at a building, "grocery store. Maybe we could get some grub in there."
"An excellent observation Duncan," Alejandro complimented him and ignored the muttered insults he got in exchange, "let's go in then."
The three men made their way quickly over to the entrance and discovered there was a zombie that was half crushed under a car just outside. The upper body still seemed functional as the zombie attempted to crawl towards them, gnashing down with its teeth. Alejandro looked at it with disgust, not pity, as he stabbed it with his machete and watched it die. A gruesome, but necessary act.
"Let's hope we don't have any more inside." Trent said nervously as his grip on his handgun tightened a bit as Duncan pushed open the glass doors.
It was clear that this building had been raided before. Items that would normally have lined the shelves were partially gone; much of it having been taken previously and some of it was scattered about on the floor. But there were other supplies, just much more sparse. The boys sighed but agreed to split up and search the place for whatever they could find; it was a fairly massive store after all.
Their experience inside the store didn't end up being too interesting. Duncan had broken into one of the manager's offices to see if anything interesting was in there, but nothing turned up. Once upon a time he might have stolen the cash he found, but it was worthless now. Still, it did give him a small sense of satisfaction to know that his criminal past meant nothing now. Trent had found a case of CDs, which seemed oddly out of place, but he took them anyway. Maybe he'd find something to play them in; a car perhaps if the group acquired some soon. Alejandro had found the majority of the food and eventually the three met back out front.
"Well I'd say this was productive." Alejandro stated, "Now to find the others and make our return trip."
And that's when a gunshot went off and hit one of them in the back. The other two jumped back in surprise as the person who was hit fell to his knees and collapsed. Another shot went off and just missed the other two. They had no choice but to flee as they had no clue where these shots were coming from.
"Holy shit!" Duncan yelled as another shot went whizzing over his head, "Who the fuck is shooting at us?"
"I have no idea," Alejandro admitted as he glanced back and saw Trent was laying, unmoving, on the ground, "I fear they killed Trent though. We must find the girls."
"What the hell is going on out here?" Jo demanded an answer as her group came storming out of the department store, "Why are you idiots-"
She screamed as Courtney tackled her to the ground so that the next shot didn't hit her square in the chest. The girls rolled off into the dust but quickly rose to their feet.
"Come on!" Brick shouted as he began running back the way they'd come, "We got to outrun these people!"
"I count at least three." Alejandro noted as the five person group fled, "All wearing black hoods."
"Ah fuck." Jo said with realization, "It's the group that betrayed us before. Maggots, prepare for battle!"
They all turned around and quickly spread out so as not to be in a big group. Duncan could now directly see where Trent's body was and he saw Alejandro was right: someone in a black hood was standing over him now with. Duncan fired his weapon at them and managed to get a hit, though not fatal.
As Jo's group opened fire and tried to hit those they could see, a previously unseen person also wearing a black hood threw something at them and before they knew it, a cloud of smoke erupted around them and billowed about. They all started coughing and were forced to stop shooting: they could wind up just hitting each other.
"What's the plan now?" Brick asked fearfully between choking.
"We flee." Courtney said simply, "We can't fight an enemy we can't see."
Nobody argued, but as they turned to run once again after admitting defeat, Jo couldn't help but voice something on everyone's mind, "Why not just shoot us? They shot Trent and could've killed us pretty easily. But they didn't; why?"
"Maybe you're old friends are sicker than you realized." Duncan said darkly as the five continued running, unpursued. Regardless, they knew this probably wasn't the last they'd seen of this mysterious group.
Trent awoke with a gasp and immediately tried to run. What he hadn't yet realized was that he was shackled to a wall of some kind in a fairly darkened room. Light filtered in from a slightly cracked ceiling and he could make out that a bandage of some kind had been placed on his body from the gunshot wound. A gunshot wound these people had caused. He began struggling again.
"Let me out of here!" Trent screamed in panic and fear as he attempted to get free of the chains but to no avail.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," A familiar female voice said as a figure wearing a black hood stepped into his line of vision, "you don't want to make this more complicated than it already is."
"Wh-who are you?" Trent asked and the girl before him removed the hood. His eyes widened in shock, "Gwen?"
You thought I was going to kill off Trent there didn't you? After killing off several people last time I wasn't willing to do that. Plus this truly is setting up the big story arc that's going to be the primary focus of the next several chapters. And what better way to do that then by revealing Gwen is still alive! And she's a part of this mysterious group Jo has been dropping hints about for chapters now. I will say that Gwen is the current #1 in my poll for character most wanted to survive and that may have slightly inspired me to write her back in sooner rather than later. Originally she was going to come back a lot later, but here she is. But what of the others who were with her back on the island? Are they still alive? Who are these mysterious people Gwen's with? And will Heather be able to take down Scott? Find out next time on Undead Drama!
DEAD: Sadie, Owen, Justin, Eva, Lindsay, Ezekiel, Tyler, Beth, Chris, Sierra, Blaineley, B, DJ, Cameron, Sam, Staci, Geoff, Anne Maria, Katie
ALIVE: Gwen (finally!), Heather, Duncan, Bridgette, Trent, Courtney, Noah, Alejandro, Lightning, Zoey, Scott, Jo, Mike/Mal, Dakota, Brick, Dawn
UNKNOWN/PRESUMED DEAD: LeShawna, Izzy, Harold, Cody, Chef Hatchet