Chapter 9
Having snuck through the adjacent woods, the group of five girls had finally reached the backside of the main building, with the access to the cafeterias kitchen and storage room. But as easy as the way through the thicket had been, the harder would be to get the much needed supplies, hence that three Screamers were feasting on a corpse right in front of the entrance. Let alone the fact, that their former refuge had already been overrun by the creatures and therefore wasn't safe anymore.
"So, now what?" hissed Victoria with crossed arms as they were watching the scenery from behind a bush.
"How about you make yourself useful for once, go over there and talk with those guys. Maybe you can annoy 'em to death," retorted Brooke with her typical pissed-off tone, causing Alyssa to chuckle and Max to give her a soft bump with the additional chiding glare. But too late, Victoria got already triggered.
"Now listen closely, you four-eyed cunt…"
"Victoria!" whisper-barked Max, drawing everyone's attention. "This is not the right time for your shit! If you've something constructive to say, then do it, otherwise keep your pie-hole shut!"
"You're the boss, Max!" commented Alyssa, patting the petit brunette's shoulder. "And I'd say we take care of 'em. They're just three and…"
"…and as soon they get the gist, they'll scream and alert a shitload more of 'em," interrupted Brooke this train of thought, which induced a disappointed "Awww…" from the chubby girl.
"You're really enjoying this?" asked Taylor with a scandalous demeanor.
"Post-apocalypse, zombies and raw violence…yup, count me in, gal!"
Whereas Taylor was visibly shocked, Victoria just covered her face with her hand and sighed in unbelief, while Max and Brooke shared a short glimpse, before just accepting it with a shrug.
"I have an idea!" said Max after another minute of thinking. "Alyssa's right. We'll never get past them without killing those freaks. So, I'm gonna sneak close and will shoot one of them, that should distract the other two. Brooke, Alyssa! You'll sneak close from the other side and take them out simultaneously."
Without any hesitation, Alyssa and Brooke both agreed to the risky plan with a nod, while Victoria just scoffed again and gazed with disgust at them, saying "You bitches are insane! You're killing people here and act like it's one of your stupid videogames."
"People?!" shot Brooke back infuriated as quietly as she could, "Have you seen what's going on? They're killing and eating others. You wanna talk things out with 'em? Go ahead, you…you…Ugh!"
Trying to suppress her anger, the Asian girl inhaled deeply, locking her sight with Max. But as she realized that it was impossible to calm down, she got up and snuck away in order to take position, Alyssa following her right away.
It had been some time since Max saw Brooke that angry and it hurt her, since she cared about her friend a lot. Throwing one last agitated glimpse at Victoria, Max moved as well, taking further bushes and a dumpster as cover until she was close enough to take the shot.
Recalling what Alyssa had taught her, the small brunette took aim, the head of the closest Screamer in her iron-sights.
'Deep inhale, exhale two-third of the air, hold it, aim, slooooowly squeeze the trigger aaaaand…'
She had almost squeezed beyond the breaking point as a Screamer's loud scream ripped her out of her focus. A bunch of male, human, panicky cries followed, and immediately her three targets jumped up, screamed as well and ran towards the source.
Her plan had failed and the situation was out of control from one moment to another. But it turned even more into chaos as three of Max's classmates came running around the corner in such a fast pace that it seemed like the devil was hunting them. Well, actually it was one of the Screamers – the former principal of Blackwell Academy, Raymond Wells to be exact – who had almost caught up to the three boys.
Max didn't think, but merely acted on instinct as she raised the crossbow and released the bolt, sending it right towards the creature's bald head, where it impacted and penetrated the skull.
The Screamer stumbled, his momentum still so fast and strong that it hit one of the boys – a lanky fella with a skater attire and base cap on his blond head, who Max knew as Justin Williams – and crashed with him into the bush where Victoria and Taylor had been hiding. And of course, one of these two shrieked in horror as the guy and the dead creature broke through the thicket of leafs and twigs.
Realizing, that probably more Screamers were on their way to investigate the commotion, Max already wanted to get the others and retreat into the woods again. But she had just left the cover of the dumpster as another creature was walking around the corner, sniffling and in search for some prey, which it found in the form of a poor, brunette photographer with freckles all over her face.
"Shit!" gasped Max, who stood there, entirely petrified like a doe that was about to get run over by a semi-truck and was staring in awe right into the closing in headlights.
Both stared at each other for a long moment, not moving a limb. Yet, Max knew that this was just the silence before the storm…or better: the silence before the Screamer would do its annoying job: cry for the others and then eat the pretty thin layer of sweet flesh from her bones. And it really had just opened its mouth to do so, as Brooke and Alyssa launched an attack on it.
At first, its head received a heavy blow from Alyssa's post-apocalypse-styled club before Brooke let her knife cut its back of the neck, killing it for good.
"We need to go, before more of 'em show up!" mentioned the Asian girl as the three friends were reunited again.
On their way back into the forest, they came past Victoria's and Taylor's hideout, whereas both bitchy girls were lying on the ground. Victoria pinned down by Principal Wells' body and Taylor by Justin. Of course, the queen bee was not amused by this situation and just barked "Can some of you assholes gimme a hand, here?"
"Wouldya for once shut the fuck up!" blurted Brooke back and heaved the heavy corpse together with Max and Alyssa off the arrogant girl.
At the same time, Justin got up from Taylor, mumbling in his constantly stoned skater-tone "Ey whoa sorry, Tay! This freak almost got me. But I landed really soft, thanks to your awesomely nice boo-…"
The smack came fast and hard, sending the blond boy to the ground again. "Get off me, perv!"
"Ouch! Not cool!" complained Justin, rubbing his cheek, while following his other fellow students into the woods, where they all stopped and took a breather as soon as they had passed a slope that was hindering the sight from the school grounds, which were now swarming with Screamers.
The other two boys, who had been hunted by the former Principal were Warren Graham, a blond 16 years old boy, and one of Max's friends and Zachary 'Zach' Riggins, a brunette jock and Juliet's ex-boyfriend. And while Warren was your typical lanky geek – only lacking the glasses – Zach was quite the opposite: strong and tall, but also dumb as a piece of bread and a narcissist.
"Nice going, you idiots!" hissed Victoria in rage. "We were just…"
"We?!" interrupted Brooke with scoff, shaking her head. "Why so modest, oh brave Icky-Vicky? How many of those things have you already wasted? One? Two? Twenty? Huh?"
"It doesn't matter!" intervened Max right away, trying to avoid an unnecessary fight between the two girls. "This shit could've happened to us, too."
"Yeah!" concurred Zach. "This freakin' zombie came out of nowhere and got Logan…"
"Actually," countered Warren, "Logan tried to kill one of it with bare hands and fucked up. They were over him in no time and we had to bail. Thanks for saving our asses, by the way!"
"Ugh, typical guys!" groaned Brooke and rolled with her eyes, feeling the need to smack them. "Great, now we wasted our chance to get at least some needed supplies. And what now? We've no food, no water and no shelter."
"We could clean out the entire dorms and barricade the entrances and windows." recommended Alyssa, weighing the club on her hands, but didn't get the hoped positive reply.
"Nah, it didn't work the first time. The dorms are way too huge and the walls are literally like cardboard." said Brooke, getting it confirmed by Warren.
"She's right. The boy's dorm got overrun in no time, only because one idiot couldn't hold back to listen his stupid Reggae-stuff."
"Sorry, man!" apologized Justin. "I just thought that we might need some chill durin' the Apocalypse."
"Yeah, nice chill, asshole!" grumbled Zach, punching with his fist the palm of his other hand. "Now my stuff is still back there, probably gettin' wanked on by some pervy zombie."
"Guys!" whisper-yelled Max as she tried to focus the conversation back to a more pressuring topic. "We all left our stuff behind, okay! But that's not important now…"
"Not important?!" exclaimed Victoria scandalously. "My 5,000 bucks camera? My MacBook? You can't be serious that I'm gonna leave that behind, selfie-slut!"
It came out of nowhere and it came hard, causing everyone to gasp in surprise as Brooke's fist connected with Victoria's jaw. Only Alyssa couldn't suppress a mischievous snicker.
Actually, anyone would've thought that Brooke had just lost her temper because of the repeatedly arrogant and annoying comments of Victoria, yet the reason was something entirely different.
"If you call her a slut one more time, I'm gonna use you as Screamer-bait and won't even feel shitty about it! Got that, cunt?"
Giving someone heat for stupid comments? Agreed! Freaking out when things went wrong? Totally Brooke Scott! Just spilling a bucket of paint over the uber-bitch's over-expensive clothes? Totally legit! But punching her just for calling her a slut? That was new and came surprising for Max. And not just for her since everyone was now staring at the Asian girl, who looked back at the ogling crowd with an angry glare before turning on the spot and walking away with angry stomps.
Max didn't care about Victoria, no. She actually thought that what just happened had been long overdue. But that it would've been all-cynical nerd Brooke, who would do it, wasn't just what she had expected. And it was at this moment that Max considered that this whole recent situation was maybe lying heavier on her best friend than anyone would've thought. But no matter what, she knew that she needed to be there for her and help her carrying this mental load, because – in fact – they needed a smart head like Brooke Scott to survive this mess.
Having made a decision, Max ignored the others and followed Brooke's path. Of course she had wandered out of the group's sight in order to be alone, yet not that far away. It was just behind a few trees where she found her, arms wrapped around her slim body and head bowed. As she closed in, she could hear quiet sniffs, plus the one or other faint sob.
"Brooke?" spoke Max silently, making the Asian girl to face her. When it came to emotions, Brooke seemed for most persons cold and sometimes even spiteful. But Max knew that there was more. Something buried deep inside. And this became clear as she witnessed that her friend's cheeks were wet from spilled tears. But what surprised Max even more, was, when the crying girl embraced her tightly, sniffing and sobbing into her shoulder.
"I'm so sorry!" she whispered, tightening the hug even more.
Max, of course taken aback by this for Brooke strange behavior, didn't at first know what to do, but eventually returned the hug. And it was okay, until from deep within, a new set of feelings emerged.
Max started to enjoy the embrace. Started to enjoy the closeness and warmth of her friend. And even her fragrance suddenly induced a tickling sensation in her stomach. It startled her, since she wasn't supposed to have those emotions. But they were there now, and Max didn't know what else to do about them than accepting that they were present.
Luckily, Brooke broke the contact after a minute and stopped this flood of feelings. Yet, a certain emptiness remained.
"Max," Brooke eventually said, fumbling timidly with her fingers while she averted her friend's worried gazes. "There's…th-there's something I…uh, something I need to tell you. I…um…I…well… Ugh, fuck!"
Frustrated, Brooke kicked some brown leafs and dirt away, pacing around as she tried to gather some courage, getting stopped by Max's soft touch, who smiled at her warmly.
"Hey Brooke, we're alone. So, just shoot! Y'know I won't bite."
She tried to sound easygoing and funny, adding even a wink to her wry smirk. Brooke, however, seemed to be edgy and tense. A state she had never ever seen her in…at least, not without a reason.
The nerdy raven-haired girl suddenly closed in with a big step, only to stop an inch away from the freckled girl's face. She was so close that Max could actually feel her labored, shaky breathing and even thought that she might hear the thumping of her heart.
For Max it was like time had stopped again. There was a deep longing. A longing to bridge this last bit of empty space, though she felt that it would be wrong. What should she do? Would it be right? Would it make things complicated? Where her emotions of a plain sexual nature or deeper? What if Juliet was still alive?
Brooke realized Max's hesitation, and eventually ended this tensed-up moment with a loud huff, followed by a scoff and paired with a head-shake.
"Thanks for being my emotional junkyard, Max. You're an awesome friend!"
'Friendzone!'
This word appeared in Max's mind, filling it with relief and sadness at the same time.
"Yeah," she huffed in return with a false chuckle. "Thanks Brooke! You're awesome, too! I…" Suddenly, a brilliant idea popped up in Max's brain. "Junkyard…" she whispered to herself before giving the other girl a big smile. "Brooke, you're a genius!"
"I know!" she answered with a shrug, but then looked at her friend dumbfounded. "But why is a junkyard genius?"
"North of town, there's an old junkyard," explained Max with excitement. "It should be far enough outside town, so that we could use it as a shelter. Building material, the nearby forest for water and wood. We could fortify this place and live there, doing raids for food from time to time."
"Well…" was Brooke's not so enthusiastic reply as she scratched the back of her head. But eventually, she hadn't had any better idea, so she concurred by saying "Sounds cool enough! But…uh, how do we get there? Hiking? Don't wanna rain on your parade, but we've got maybe two hours of bright daylight remaining, and wandering through the woods at night doesn't sound that appealing, since we don't have a compass and map to navigate."
"No need to," was the surprising answer of Max, who rummaged through her messenger bag and pulled out a bunch of keys with a Robot-Panda on the keyring. "I don't wanna boast, but I'm the proud owner of a cool rust bucket, a.k.a. Chloe's old truck! Lotsa space for foot-lazy teenagers and already styled for the apocalypse!"
"Ge-ni-us!" cheered Brooke with a wide grin. "Damn, sometimes I wanna kiss you!"
'Then just do it!' was the cheeky sentence that echoed through Max's mind, yet she suppressed it. "Then let's tell the others!"
Said and done…
Well, actually it wasn't that easily done since, as both girls had almost reached their group's last known position, they realized that they all were lying on the ground. And the reason wasn't that far away, in form of a Screamer, wandering aimlessly through the woods.
"Shit!" hissed Brooke and dragged Max down with her, which induced some rustling of dry leafs and caused the creature to look in their direction.
It felt like the world around them had stopped to exist since Max and Brooke were now entirely focused on the closing in thing that once used to be a human being, but was now nothing more than a bloodied animal, which's entrails were hanging out of its partially ripped open belly. Maybe those Screamers weren't good at seeing anymore, but sooner or later, this thing would find and hunt them, and if it was by pure accident.
They needed at solution, and they needed it now! But how to lure away the creature without causing too much commotion?
Still being out of sight for the Screamer, Alyssa presented the answer as she picked up a rock and threw it over the slope as far away as possible, inducing another rustling sound of dry leafs.
Her plan worked and the vicious creature followed the noise. Everyone waited until some time had gone by and the group reunited again, whereas Brooke then whispered "Thanks, Aly! Listen guys, we can't stay here! Max got a truck and knows a place, where we can hide. We just have to reach the parking lot."
Lacking any other option, the entire group of survivors nodded in agreement and followed Brooke and Max as they were leading them through the woods to the school's parking lot, hoping that it wasn't crowded by Screamers.
Slowly and trying to avoid any unnecessary noise, the bunch of teenagers snuck around the school grounds, always staying out of sight, Zach being the last one to cover their backs. But, honestly, he sucked at it.
In his mind, the tall jock was still thinking about his former buddy Logan, who was now nothing more than a pleasant meal for those zombies…or Screamers, as those three ugly geeks had called them. All-in-all, the mostly egocentric boy wasn't very fond of this general situation in the slightest. Geeks, an ugly fat goth-bitch, a pothead, a nerd and two bitchy cunts, who were actually fuckable, but lacked any real curves. No, he had really picked the shit. Maybe he could score with that Asian geek. That would be at least something new on his Things-to-do-before-I-die-list.
But oh-how merciless life could be! Especially, if you're not paying any attention to your surroundings. A fast car, a train, a loose plank. Yes, life had a lot of possibilities to end itself in a gruesome or even stupid way. But, of course, Zach – the wannabe almighty football player – would never suffer from such a common fate. No, he would have something special.
Being in deep thoughts, the young boy barely realized some incoming, rather noisy footsteps. Or were it even just footsteps?
Annoyingly, he spun around, planning on going all ballistic on that asshole, who was making that much noise. But the young man hadn't even had a chance to let out one tone as he froze in shock upon witnessing how a Screamer approached him quickly on all fours like spider.
It jumped and tackled Zach to ground with such a force that all air was pressed out of his lungs, making a warning shout impossible. Then, the creature straightened and let out its inhuman scream, like a wolf that was calling for its pack, before it rammed its hands right into the former football player's belly, ripping it open in one swift move and then began digging through it like it was searching for something. The rest of the survivors had to watch in horror how intestines and blood were scattered all over the surrounding area as the creature kept on ripping everything out of Zach's body.
His last thoughts, while he was watching how his liver was smashed against a close-by tree and the Screamer now dived into his opened belly to eat, was that he could now never fulfill his bucket-list of things that he wanted to do before dying. No Asian pussy. No being a star-quarterback. No fancy villa with a ton of willing whores. Just a gruesome death in the woods and the knowledge that the geeks were going to survive longer than the hard-trained super-jock…
His last thought was about that he would be a great loss for this world. Sadly, nobody considered or would ever care about this fact!
"Run!" yelled Max, being the first one to snap out of the shock, making the rest following her while from every direction more screams closed in.
In unison, the group started to sprint through the underwood. Which wasn't that easy since lose branches, tendrils and the by a carpet of brown leafs covered soft ground made this an enormous effort for the rather untrained teenagers. Especially Victoria had her difficulties with the terrain because of her expensive Prada high-heels, which caused her to stumble and eventually fall.
She hit the ground with a groan, landing directly on some thorny plants, which's spikes pierced through her soft skin like barbed wire. Panicky she looked around, seeing several shadows rushing through the woods. She was alone now. The others probably over the hills and far away, leaving her as bait and laughing…
"C'mon, move your ugly ass!" suddenly chimed Brooke's voice beside her as the Asian girl helped her up. Max was there, too, also giving her support.
A Screamer suddenly broke through the thicket, already about to sprint at them as Alyssa's club hit it right in the face in mid-run. The skull broke. The club broke. The chubby girl's shoulder got dislocated.
But Alyssa was – unexpectedly – a fighter, gulped down the pain and followed her friends, her left hand holding her limp right arm.
They closed in on the parking lot, but to what avail? Now having reached Taylor, Warren and Justin, who were already standing right at the brim of the forest, the group stared at the high number of Screamers that were roaming throughout the vicinity like a bunch of triggered ants in dire search for their next victim.
"We're so dead!" mentioned Warren in defeat with a shaking voice as their pursuers closed in through the woods. But just because he had already given up, didn't mean that the same was the matter for Brooke.
"We still have to try!" she countered, then glimpsed at Max. "You got the keys ready?"
After rummaging shortly through her bag, Max brought them forth and held them tightly in her hands. "Ready for action! Quiet and slowly?"
"More like fast as hell," threw Alyssa in as she glimpsed over her injured shoulder. "'cause we got incoming!"
Hastily, the group of survivors left the underwood and ran straight towards an old, rusty Puck-Up truck that was prominently parking at the rather unoccupied parking lot.
Most of the Screamers there, hadn't spotted them yet, so that the young teenagers used the element of surprise to get rid of the two who were blocking their way by shooting a bolt in one's skill and sticking the knife in the other one's head.
The last bolt was lost and the knife broke, robbing the group of their last effective weapons. But luckily they reached the truck and were already embarking the bed of the vehicle while Max tried to open the door with shaking hands.
First try: the key slipped and fell down.
'Buttetfingers!'
Second try: it slipped into the keyhole.
'Success!'
But the happiness didn't last long as one of the Screamers emerged from the woods with high-speed and headed straight for the slim brunette, who saw the only option to defend herself by quickly opening the driver's door and putting it between herself and the attacker.
The creature impacted head-first on the sturdy metal with a loud thud, leaving a giant dent in it and causing the glass to shatter, while Max got tossed away by the sheer force as the door got slammed close again.
Lucky for her: the creature had killed itself with this action as its neck broke during the collision. Unlucky for her…and everybody else: the loud noise had drawn a lot of unwanted attention.
Still confused from the impact of the last attack, Max tried to get back on her feet and only achieved it with Brooke's and Warren's help, while Alyssa wanted to start up the truck. Unfortunately, the door got so much damaged that it didn't budge. But the situation got even worse as the chubby girl picked up the on the ground laying keychain.
"Uh, guys…I think we have a problem…"
Everyone stared in unbelief at the broken off car-key, which's other part was still stuck in the driver's door's keyhole.
That was it. Three injured, one now useless truck and a whole bunch of Screamers that were closing in on them.
Waiting for their cruel fate, Taylor started to cry out of desperation, Victoria clenched her jaw as she was unwilling to accept her fate, Justin began to curse upon how unfair life was, Alyssa already made herself ready to make her last stand and Warren mentally prepared himself to defend Max and Brooke, who were embracing each other, whereas the latter one whispered "I love you, Max!"
A wild mixture of happiness, surprise, excitement, but also sadness and desperation was surging through Max's mind, causing her to tighten the embrace with her best friend and let her sob into the Asian girl's shoulder.
They were waiting. Waiting for their inevitable end. Loud, inhuman screams where chiming from everywhere around them. There was no escape. No way to get out of this. It was over.
A creature came closer, heading straight for the two hugging girls. Warren got between hunter and prey, though knowing that this would be a lost fight, evident as another bunch of Screamers closed in from the other direction.
Suddenly, a loud shot sounded from not far away, hitting the first Screamer right in the head and let hit the ground hard. But what it also did was to make the other creatures stop in their movements. Upon the following silence, the teenagers opened their eyes and looked around.
All Screamers were standing stunned in their spots, heads held up high and turning towards the source of the latest loud sound.
BANG!
This time, the shot, that had killed another one, came from someplace else, yet this one triggered the Screamers instantly, letting them scream furiously and run towards the source, hence saving the group of survivors as they ignored them. But things got really weird as an old RV drove onto the parking lot.
The teenagers gazed in awe at the big vehicle as the side-door swung open and a well-known face emerged, pistol in her hand and ready to fire, making her look like Lara Croft.
"C'mon, hurry up, get in!" urged Juliet, her sight securing the surroundings. And while the rest of the group headed inside the bulky vehicle, Max just stared at her still alive girlfriend in awe.
And Brooke…?
Well, Brooke had to fight with a mix of feelings, consisting of happiness for Max upon having her girlfriend back and jealousy from her own side. And it got even worse as the petite brunette embraced and kissed her beloved Juliet. But life had to go on, so that the Asian girl put on her common grumpy demeanor, just walked past the two loving people and embarked the RV as well.
Right after she had entered – Max and Juliet right behind her – and was looking for a place to sit down, Brooke noticed a small, blood-spotted figure, sitting unnoticed in the corner. "Katie?!" she whispered and wanted to head towards her as a jolt let her stumble as the vehicle started to move.
"Okay, guys, hold on tight!" Juliet called out as she punched the gas and drove them off the parking lot. Of course it didn't stay unnoticed by some remaining Screamers, who were following them effortlessly.
Actually, it should've been a moment to cheer and to celebrate, but nobody felt like it. Everybody was either caught silently in deep thoughts or was crying out the tremendous amount of stress that was now falling off of them. Even Brooke, couldn't hold down her emotions anymore after she had sat down beside Kate, quietly sobbing into the sleeves of her hoodie.
Only Max stayed beside Juliet, who was driving the RV towards the towns center. Until she suddenly hit the brakes as she saw a man with scruffy blond hair and a scoped hunting rifle running through a house's garden towards the road, followed by a bunch of Screamers.
"Max, open the door!" the taller girl told her girlfriend, who immediately jumped up and fulfilled her task.
The man jumped in and the vehicle accelerated right away before it even had entirely stopped, while Max closed its door again.
"Head north!" he called out, slumping down on the surprisingly unoccupied passenger's seat, gasping for air and wiping some sweat off his forehead.
They were safe for now. But for how long, nobody knew.