CHAPTER 31: BACK TO NORMAL

Without a moment's hesitation, I ran over to Pete and pulled the creature off him. I threw it to the ground and then smashed the creature's head with my foot. I looked up at Clayton and was about to run over to him, but before I could he pushed the mummies off him and backed into another tunnel. Just as he backed into that tunnel, the top of the cave then collapsed.

"NO, CLAYTON", Pete yells. "DAMN IT", I yelled out-loud. "Maybe we can dig him out", Pete suggested. "It looks to be just dirt, no rock". "We can't. We don't have anything to dig him out with", I told him. "All we can do now is continue on and put the necklace back in its place. That is what he wanted us to do". "You think that Ann girl is alright?" Pete asks me. "I don't know, but we do have to find her. She has the necklace", I told him. "Actually..." Pete then dug into his pocket and pulled out the necklace. "Let's continue on", I told him.

We continued down the tunnel, slaying more mummies that we came across in our journey in the vast darkness. It felt like an hour has passed since Clayton got buried. "You know, I think I like the zombies more than these mummies", Pete says. "Why is that? They're pretty much the same", I told him. "Yeah, but the ones on the surface are clothed. These are pretty much dirty and naked. And all these years, I expected mummies to be covered in toilet paper", he says. "So, what are we going to do about Clayton?" he then asks me. "We'll do a ceremony, honor him. It's the least we could do once we take the school back and repair the gates", I told him. After a while of more walking and slaying, we spotted a small source of light down the tunnel. "Do you think...?" Pete tried to ask. "Let's go", I told him.

We ran down the tunnel towards the small light. After a while of running, we made it to the end of the tunnel where the shrine was. The shrine consisted of six lit candles, a huge picture of Ann and her twin sister, a lot of personal belongings like stuffed animals and small jewelry, and finally a necklace holder. "Still got the necklace?" I asked him.

Pete then pulled out the necklace from his pocket and then handed it to me. But before I could put the necklace onto the holder, the sound of the ground ripping echoed through the room. We both turned back and spotted about ten mummies coming out of the ground. "This isn't real. This isn't real", Pete says to himself. "IT'S REAL", I told him as I equipped my Spud Gun and started shooting at the mummies.

I shot about four mummies before one of them knocked my Spud Gun out of my hands. I pushed the mummy away and then wacked him in the head with my metal pipe. Just at that moment, several more mummies popped out of the ground. We were surrounded. "DAMN IT, NOW WHAT?" Pete asks. Just as he said that one of the mummies charged at Pete. Pete screamed in horror as the mummy got up close and personal. Right before it could bite him in the neck, its head exploded into a million tiny pieces.

"I hate mummies, and I hate zombies". I looked up and saw that it was Clayton with a handgun. I turned to the mummies and continued killing them. Pete was handling himself well, Clayton was covering us from above, and I was doing good with my pipe and Spud Gun. After a while, all the mummies were dead. It was a close call, but we survived.

"Are you okay, Clayton? We thought you were killed when the cave collapsed", Pete says, relieved to see him. "Trust me, I'm fine", Clayton told Pete. He then looked behind him and said, "You can come out now". Just then, Ann came out of the shadows and both her and Clayton jumped down from the platform that they were standing on.

I went over to Ann and I told her, "Your actions nearly got us killed". "Well, you're alive and that's what counts", she tells me. "So how do we do this?" I then ask her. "Just put the necklace on the holder and everything will go back to normal", she answers. "Are you sure?" Clayton asks her. "I'm positive", she answers. "Pete, do it", Clayton tells her.

Pete then took the necklace out of his pocket and then went up to the necklace holder. He slipped the necklace in the right spot and backed away. "There we go. You happy now?" I said to Ann, but when I turned around to look at her, she was gone. "Ghost, huh?" I said out-loud. "You should leave now. Return to your group", her voice echoes in the shrine. "Deja Vu", Clayton says out-loud.

"What?" I asked him. "John Marston went into a shrine / tomb to put away a cursed object. Once he did, his 'partner' in the tombs disappears in mid-air and tells him to go home", Clayton tells me. "Like I said: Deja vu". "Do we know anything about the Aztecs? I mean our society?" Pete asks me. "We know a lot, but even then, we don't know all about them", Clayton tells him.

"How did you survive anyway?" I asked him. "I jumped just in time as the cave collapsed. The dirt buried the mummies, but not me. As for how I got here, I just used the cave wall to my advantage and even found her up ahead", he explained. "Hey, can we please get out of here?" Pete then asks. "I want to see if things are normal again". "Yeah, let's get out of here", Clayton suggests. "This place is giving me the creeps".

All three of us left the shrine and walked our way back to the elevator. The three of us, each battle-weary, may have ended the zombie threat. But to make sure that we did, we had to get topside again. So, we trekked down the tunnel all the way till we got to the elevator. We pressed the button, and the elevator went all the way back up to the level where we came from. Once the doors opened, we walked out of it, around the Hole and down the hall to the stairs where the exit to the basement was located. We walked out the door and went over to Zoe who was at the front door. "Zoe, what's happening out there?" I asked her.

"I don't know", she replied. "One second, all I heard was moaning and clawing at the door and the next minute, it all stopped. I was too worried to even crack the door open. Didn't actually want to look through the window either". I gently shoved her aside and went up to the door. I grabbed the doorknob and was about to open the door slightly when Zoe grabbed me by the shoulder and looked at me with a worried look. "It's okay", I whispered to her. I then opened the door slowly and looked outside.

All the zombies, or what was left of them, was now lying on the ground lifeless. Lifeless as if the energy force were sucked out of them. I opened the doors all the way and then kicked one of the corpses. Not once did they budge. "It's over", I said out-loud. "It's finally over". "I'm going to go tell the others", Zoe says as she leaves us and heads for the Auditorium.

We followed her to the Auditorium where she climbed onto the stage and yelled on stage, "IT'S OVER. THE ZOMBIES ARE ALL DEAD. IT'S OVER". Everyone within the room then started cheering. Everyone hugging one another, some of boys kissed the girls, everyone was happy. "You did it. You're my hero", Zoe teased as she kissed me on the lips. "What do you think happens next?" I asked her. "What do you think?" she asks me. "I say we burn them, just in case. Then after that, we go and take a good, long stroll on the beach", I told her. "Great idea", she says.

After maybe an hour of clearing the bodies and burning then, we got off campus and went on that long walk that Zoe and I planned. During that walk, we watched as the sun set in the west. It was nice seeing the sun set again. All I ever focused on as of lately was killing zombies as well as leading an entire group of survivors. Will I ever forget what just happened? No, I will not. Things will never be the same again. But at least for the first time since I came back to Bullworth, I do not have to look over my shoulder for any zombies or hostile kids. Nope, we were finally safe.