Chapter 4

ONCE BITTEN, BUT STILL OKAY

Thursday, March 18th

5:39 P.M.

Status: Cole and Zane with Wu upon the bounty, Pixal is traveling in the Samurai X suit, Lloyd is located in Buddy's Pizza with seven children under seventeen, Kai, Jay and Nya are located in the Serpentine kingdom with schoolchildren and teachers. No injuries detected.

Returning upon the Destiny's Bounty, Cole and Zane continued to get in contact with the others, but no luck. They tried everything. Communicators, cell phones, even Kai's smart watch. No luck. They got nothing. While they continued brainstorming alternatives to locating their friends, Wu couldn't help but pace. He worried about his remaining pupils being out in the infected city where they could be attacked by those dark zombified civilians. Only thoughts of the worst possible outcomes entered his mind. Nothing but negative thoughts. Thoughts of fear. Thoughts of hopeless worries.

He walked up to his two remaining students, his patience due to his concerns growing thin. "Any luck trying to locate them?"

Cole sighed. "Nothing. Looks like that fog must've turned anyone outside into mindless zombies. I can only hope the others made it either indoors or underground."

"I pray for the same, but we must continue on. We need to continue helping the people. We will continue our search for the others along the way."

"Roger that, Sensei." Cole looked over at Zane. "Zane, can you check to see how much fuel we have?"

Taking a moment to check the fuel tank's percentage, he answered, "We are at fifty percent. Only half a tank, but we will need to keep up with all we have. I will get in touch with Pixal to see if there is any stored in the Samurai X cave."

"If there's any fuel there, we need to take all we have," Wu said, "We'll need it to save as many of the innocent as we can. Who knows how long this infection will last? We won't have any use for the bounty other than sailing upon the seas."

"Zane, any luck getting through to Pixal?" Cole asked.

"Yes," Zane said.

"How were you able to get through to her?"

"I can communicate with her through my mind. We actually created an alteration that can-"

"We don't have time to hear about that crap, Zane. Just tell us what Pixal said."

"Just a moment." Zane paused, standing there with his eyes closed and his hand on the side of his head. It was a moment later when he opened his bright blue optics and looked at his teacher and brother. "Pixal says the fog has spread. Anyone left outside anywhere in Ninjago has been turned into dark creatures. Our remaining teammates whereabouts are unknown, but Pixal was able to get in touch with Skylor. Everyone on the island is safe inside the palace at this time. I am afraid to say that there may not be many citizens left. If there are any, they have probably escaped underground or indoors. It may not be much information, but we at least have a heads up."

Wu sighed. "This is not good. With more of those things out there, I worry more about the survivors. And the rest of the team. I just hope any that are still out there are safe. I wish they could be here instead of being where I don't even know whether or not they're okay."

"Don't worry, Sensei," Cole reassured his teacher, "I'm sure the others are fine. They're probably hiding out somewhere until they can figure out the next step."

Zane placed a hand on Wu's shoulder. "We will find them. And we won't stop until they are safe."

Wu nodded, appreciating their help, but even with all the reassurance, he still wasn't convinced. But it was not only the ninja who he was worried for. It was also Misako, wherever she may be. For Garmadon, even though he now had a heart once again filled with pure evil. For the elemental masters that were on the ninja's side. For his own friends. For the people of Ninjago, whether innocent or infected. Well, in general, for everyone.

Great Sensei, if you can hear me, please watch over my remaining students.

NEXT SCENE:

Location: Buddy's Pizza

Time: 6:30 P.M.

Many have been used to the usefulness of ovens and microwaves, toasters and stoves. But when you currently live in a society where dark nights linger and all people have are candlelit homes, the only way to prepare a meal for seven young kids is with an old fashioned fireplace. Thankfully, there was plenty of firewood since it was a pizza restaurant and there was plenty of food to make a good filling dinner to satisfy seven hungry people.

While the food was cooking, Lloyd went out into the dining area to check on the kids. They were settled down and occupied with drawing pictures on the back of the printed menus and enjoying cups of soda. He was lucky to find two liter bottles of the sweet beverage in the storage room. All in all, the kids were happy and weren't as scared as they were before. It was like they forgotten the catastrophe from earlier.

It was then he noticed only six people crowded in one booth. The five young children plus Antonia, who was showing one of the kids how to draw a stick man. Searching the dining room, he spotted Nelson sitting at a table in a dark corner, swirling the straw around in his soda cup. Being the helpful person he is for those in need, he went over to the young preteen and sat down across from him.

"Hey, are you okay?" he asked Nelson.

Sighing, Nelson looked up at the green ninja. "It's nothing."

"Come on, don't hide anything from me."

Hesitating a moment, Nelson went back to swirling his straw around in his cup before confessing. "I'm worried about my mom. She's all I have and I'm all she has. But I don't wanna burden you with my problems. You probably have a lot on your mind right now."

"So it's just you and your mom? What about you dad?"

"I barely know him. I mean, I've seen pictures of him and my mom's talked about him a lot, but I never met him. He died before I was born. He was coming back from a business trip is what my mom told me. But the plane crashed and there weren't many survivors. My dad was one of the unlucky ones. But his was a good reason. There was a little kid and he was about to fall out a window and-"

"Your dad saved him by getting him to safety."

Nelson nodded. "Yeah. And he ended up falling out the window. But the boy he saved honored him as a hero."

"There are heroes everywhere. They're not just people who have powers like the ninja and I do. People like you can be a hero just by doing the things you do best. And that's exactly what your dad did."

Nelson smiled. "Never did I think I could actually have a normal conversation with the green ninja. I don't feel jittery or anything. I seem to always get hurt, but it could be the fact that I'm sort of reckless. But over the past couple of years, I've learned to be a lot more careful around danger."

"Well, sometimes you grow out of the bad habits and change them around. So you still feeling worried?"

Nelson sighed. "More than you know. I just can't stop worrying something bad has happened to her."

"Everything will be okay. I'm positive your mom's fine and safe indoors. I'm pretty sure she's worried sick about you, but she's at least safe."

Giving it a moment of thought, Nelson nodded. "You're right. I just have to have faith. Faith will keep her safe."

"That's the spirit. Why don't you go and join the others? I'm gonna go and finish getting dinner ready."

Nodding, Nelson took his cup and went to join the other kids. Lloyd made his way back to the kitchen to finish preparing dinner.

Just when Lloyd was taking out some plates, he began hearing banging noises coming from the ceiling. It was as though something was knocking things over. Or could it be someone? That's when Lloyd figured out something that didn't even cross his mind until now.

When he went back out in the dining room to serve the kids dinner, he went over to Antonia. "Say, do you know where all the employees went when everything started?"

"They all climbed up on the roof," Antonia said, "They went through a hatch on the ceiling in the freezer."

"Kind of an odd place to have a ceiling hatch," Lloyd said, chuckling.

Antonia chuckled along with him. "Yeah. Anyway, they told us to lock the freezer until we were told to open it. That was before the fog spread, though."

Nodding, Lloyd looked over at Nelson. "Nelson, can you keep an eye on the kids for a few minutes?"

"Sure," the preteen said, returning to his meal and conversing with the other kids.

Lloyd placed his attention back on the teenage girl. "Come with me, Antonia."

They made their way over to the freezer door, where Lloyd pressed his ear up against it to hear growling and snarling inside. Looks like there's a flesh eater inside. Groaning, Lloyd turned to face Antonia. "Okay, listen carefully. I need you to stay right here in front of the door. Do not unlock it until I say 'ninja,' which is the code word. If you hear any banging or knocking around, don't go anywhere near the door. Only unlock it at my command. Got it?"

"Got it," Antonia said, "But how to you plan on getting outside?"

"I'll go through the back door in the kitchen." He took out his sword. "I may have to take down a few of those things. I don't want to, but-"

"You have to do what you have to do."

Lloyd nodded. "Yeah. Stay here. I'll be back."

Lloyd started making his way to the kitchen, heading over to the back door. Taking a deep breath, he quietly opened it and went out the back door, staying alert and on the lookout for any signs of dark zombies.

When he saw nothing lurking about, he hid behind a dumpster, keeping the plan solid in his mind: to go up on the roof, kill the zombies that were once employers of the pizzeria, and make it to the freezer where he would have Antonia let him back inside. Sounds simple, even though it would become mental wounds to end innocent lives before finding a cure. If there is a cure.

Searching the perimeter of the building in the dark shadows, he spotted a ladder leading up to the roof. He quietly climbed up, careful to not draw attention. When he made it to the top, he peeked behind the side of the building, seeing two zombies wandering in circles. Carefully removing one of his throwing daggers, he aimed straight for the head. Once the dark individual stopped moving, he threw it right at its forehead, killing it on impact. He did the same to the other zombies, stabbing it straight through the skull.

Once he placed himself on the roof, he took back his daggers and searched the area until he found the hatch that led inside the attic. Opening it, he removed his flashlight from his pack and shone it around the interior of the top floor of the pizzeria. The light stopped on a purple body lying in the floor on its back as if they were about to call it a night. Lloyd was about to place them in a permanent sleeping state as he took his sword, aimed and threw it to stab the zombie in the head.

He quickly jumped inside the attic, searching around with his flashlight to insure himself the coast was clear. But it was that moment where a searing pain erupted on his left arm. He didn't hesitate to stab his sword at whoever it was biting him straight through the head. Once he heard it thump on the floor, he pointed his flashlight to see it was a dark zombie. And its teeth were covered in fresh blood.

My blood, Lloyd thought, Oh, holy Sensei! It bit me! The freaking thing actually bit me!

Searching the top floor of the pizzeria, he quickly found a spot in the attic with enough light from the moon to get a closer examination of his bite. Shining his flashlight for better lighting, he finally took a look at the fresh wound festering upon his arm.

It looked bad. Bad enough to become infected. That is if he didn't become one of the infected. He wished he had some first aid, but nothing could treat this. He knew that any moment now he would turn into a zombie before having a chance to gain a better understanding of what the hell was happening in Ninjago. This was all too soon.

What am I gonna do? Those kids are waiting for me to get them to safety and now I've failed them by getting bit. This is pretty much my fault. I shouldn't have tried to go out after them yet. I'm not ready to face these things. Now I won't be able to save them because I'll become one of those zombies. I am such an idiot.

But just before Lloyd lost all hope, the strangest thing began to happen. The bite was no longer searing in pain. It was healing itself. Lloyd was glad for the relief, but bewildered by how the wound just automatically did that. Such a mystery he wanted solved and so many questions he just formed that he wanted to ask. But there was no time for that. All he could do was shake off the pain and walked over to the hatch that led to the freezer.

Thankfully, the freezer wasn't cold. With the power being gone, there was no working thermostat to decrease the temperature in the room, which caused Lloyd to worry about the food defrosting and going bad. But there was one thing about the used to be cold room that was wrong in so many ways. There was a zombie inside, sitting up against a shelf that held frozen meat toppings. Knowing the drill by heart, Lloyd killed the zombie instantly by throwing his sword on its head.

Hopping inside the freezer, Lloyd took a moment to sit down against the wall, checking himself with the little bit of light the freezer provided. The bite on his arm was completely gone. It didn't even leave a scar, like it turned invisible and was never there in the first place. But he did notice the massive amount of blood on his ninja gi. He couldn't go back out there looking like he just returned from the slaughterhouse. The kids would literally freak out.

After taking back his sword from the zombie's head, he walked over to the door, knocked on it and stated the code word, "Ninja."

Antonia opened the door right away, but Lloyd only poked his head through, not wanting to freak the teenage girl out in his current state.

"Are you okay?" Antonia asked.

Lloyd nodded. "Yeah, I'm good. Say, could you do me a favor? Would you mind looking around to see if there's a change of clothes around? There's probably a spare employers uniform somewhere in this place. Oh, and a wet cloth so I can clean my sword. It's a little messy."

"Sure thing." She went off to do so and came back a few minutes later with a white t-shirt, a pair of khaki pants and a wet cloth. Lloyd had her stay outside the door while he began cleaning and changing.

While he was doing so, he began thinking about why he didn't become infected after being bitten. Isn't that what's supposed to happen after one has their flesh being devoured by a zombie? Perhaps there was a logical explanation for this. He will admit that in a way, it's a blessing that he was still standing, but also in a way, he wasn't sure if this was a good or bad thing. He would have to keep an eye on his arm in case something backfires. Hopefully, nothing would, but he's learned to never be too careful.

But he knew right away this would end up being such a confusing topic to discuss with the other ninja.

Once he finds them, that is. All he can hope for is for them to stay safe.

Stay strong, guys. Stay strong.

WOW. LLOYD GOT BIT, BUT DIDN'T TURN. WHY IS THAT, A LOT OF YOU MAY BE ASKING? WE'LL FIND OUT LATER ON IN THIS STORY.

FOR NOW, HAPPY EASTER, EVERYONE! EVEN THOUGH THERE'S ONLY LESS THAN A HOUR AND A HALF LEFT OF IT.

PLEASE REVIEW, GUYS.