Chapter 27: Bikini Bottom

It was morning by the train Bucky stopped the train at the train station in Bikini Bottom. The group walks through the empty streets of the city and got a good look at the place. The city of Bikini Bottom was built at the side of the sea and was truly a wonder. Its uniqueness is matched by the backdrop of modest hills, forests, and a shiny beach which have helped shape the city into what it was today. The materials those hills brought were of great importance.

The vast majority of buildings had been built with many tall shapes and wide sizes.

The skyline was spreading with impressive skyscrapers and they seemed to be reaching higher and higher each year, no doubt thanks to all the money due to summer tourism as the beautiful beach attracted a lot of attention. Hundreds of bars, gastropubs, and coffeehouses offer a plethora of culinary choices. Those who feel hungry for something else can enjoy aerobics, an amusement park, water sports, or one of the many other recreational venues.

There were also quite a few churches and temples scattered around the entire beach city.

However, instead of the usual hustle and bustle of the city, the group was met with silence and empty streets. There wasn't any sign of ghosts, infected, or even human beings. Bucky, Sandy, SpongeBob, Dash, and Kwan had drawn their pistols just in case, Mr. Dinkleberg carried a heavy shovel, and Danny held his sword at the ready. SpongeBob limped along, his injured leg now bandaged thanks to Sandy. Jimmy, Timmy, and Tootie walked beside Danny and Timmy looked at his walkie-talkie attached to the black and white-haired teenager's hip.

After hearing that strange man on the boy's radio, Danny had decided that Timmy wasn't allowed to use it without him or an adult observing him.

"Can't I just hold it? Just for a little while?" The bucktoothed boy pleaded. "We're getting real close to where our moms and dads are, maybe I can-"

"I already told you no." He frowned. "Don't ask me again, okay?"

"What's the harm in lettin' him have it?" Sandy asked. "It doesn't even work."

"You take care of yours, let me take care of mine." He snapped.

"Sorry I spoke." Sandy huffed and Danny flinched in guilt.

"How's SpongeBob?" He asked, trying to build bridges with the new girl in their group.

"His leg's pretty bad." She replied, not looking at him.

"I'm fine." SpongeBob pouted.

"Yer not fine, ya need ta rest." Sandy insisted impatiently.

"It's not safe to stop out here in the open, we need to keep moving." Danny pointed out. "He can rest after we find a boat and get out on the water."

"I don't know how much longer he can keep on like this, if his leg gets any worse, we're goin' ta have ta carry him."

"Or leave him." Bucky shrugged.

"What?!" Sandy cried out in shock with others also looking at Bucky in disbelief. "No! That's not an option! We can't-"

"Lady, I've known you for all of twelve hours, you don't get to say 'we' unless you mean just you and him." Bucky huffed as he glared at her and Patrick.

"Ya know, since this, all started I've seen tha best come out of a lot of people, and tha worst out of a lot of others." She explained with a huff. "I guess we know which side ya came down on."

"There you go again with the 'we'." He laughed bitterly. "There is no 'we', there's 'us' and there's you and your boyfriend slowing 'us' down!"

"Go ta hell, Bucky." She snapped.

"Ha! Have you taken a look around lately bitch? It ain't that long a trip." He smirked.

"Sandy, Bucky's right." Said Danny. "The longer we stay out in the open, the more dangerous it is for all of us."

"I'm not leavin' him!" She exclaimed, causing SpongeBob to blush slightly.

"No one's asking you to." He quickly corrected her. "We just gotta keep moving, all of us." He added, sending a glare to Bucky as he carefully picked SpongeBob up to get some pressure off his injured leg, which the blonde man was grateful for. The group continued to walk in silence until all of a sudden the belltower at the end of the street started ringing, its sound echoing throughout the city.

"What the hell...?" Dash gasped.

"Maybe this city's not so dead after all." Sandy hummed in thought.

"Keep moving." Bucky hissed. "No one's ringing that bell, it's automatic, on a timer."

"What kind of church bell goes off at twenty past the hour?" Jimmy asked as he checked his watch, surprised that it still worked. Danny shrugged and looked back at the bell tower, only to gasp when he noticed a dark figure climbing on the rooftop.

"Someone's up there!" He exclaimed and pointed to the roof, but the figure had disappeared.

"Are you sure? I don't see anything." Kwan frowned in confusion.

"I know what I saw." He insisted. "I'm telling you, there's someone up in that belltower! Someone alive!" He exclaimed when suddenly the radio crackled to life, shocking the entire group.

"If I were you, I'd get out of the street; now." A distorted voice said from the radio in a dangerous tone. For a split second, Danny thought in the back of his mind that he recognized the voice, but it was too distorted to be certain.

"I thought ya said that thing didn't work!" Sandy yelled, but Danny ignored her and pressed the button on the radio.

"Hello? Hello? Are you there?!" He asked angrily, but there was no reply.

"What was that? Is someone trying to mess with us?" SpongeBob asked as he looked around fearfully.

"Sounded more like a warning to me." Mr. Dinkleberg gulped when seemingly out of nowhere dozens of infected poured into the street and they started to approach the group as the bell stopped tolling. Without wasting another second, the group killed several infected and ran through the street. An infected trapped under a car suddenly grabbed onto Bucky's ankle, making him fall and drop his gun. He grabbed onto a pole and tried to pull himself toward the weapon, but the monster had a good grip.

"Bucky!" Danny cried and stabbed the trapped infected in the head, freeing Bucky.

"Little too close, don't ya think?" He panted as Danny helped him up. Before Danny could reply, however, a shrill scream suddenly tore through the air. Danny wiped around and was horrified to see Dash, Kwan, and Tootie were cornered against a brick wall by a group of infected.

"No! Guys! Help her!" Danny screamed, his voice shocking the pair out of their terror. But to Danny's shock as Tootie panicked Dash ran away.

"Goddamn it!" Kwan shouted as he pulled out his pistol and shot several of the infected near himself and Tootie. The little girl cried and yelped as an infected got too close to her. Before they could grab her, however, Kwan kicked the monster away and they managed to escape back to the group.

"Come! River Street's right up ahead!" Bucky shouted from up ahead, only to stop when more infected approached. "Oh, gimme a fucking break!" He bellowed as he and the others fired their guns into the herd to clear the way, but there were so many that it didn't have much effect. When they thought this was the end, another church bell started ringing a few blocks away. They watched in shock as the loud noise attracted the infected group and started walking towards the noise.

As soon as the coast was clear Danny quickly picked up a still limping SpongeBob and ran after the others as they ran to safety...


The group ran for a few blocks until they finally found a large unlocked iron gate that led into the backyard of a large house. From the outside, the house looked grandiose. It had been built with white bricks and had burgundy brick decorations. Small, squared windows allowed enough light to enter the home and had been added to the house in a very symmetric way. The building was rectangular shaped. The house was half surrounded by overgrown wooden overhanging panels.

The second floor was bigger than the first, which created a stylish overhang on two sides of the house.

The roof was high and rounded and was covered with flat black roof tiles. Two small chimneys poked out the center of the tall roof and there were no windows on the roof. The house itself was surrounded by what appeared to be a well-kept garden before the invasion happened. Grass, flower patches, and trees have been placed stylishly and were blocked off from the rest of the street but a six-foot-tall red-brick gate with small iron spikes on top.

Thick ivy had crawled up the wall of the side of the house, some covering the bottom windows.

As they ran into the garden, Danny closed the gate. SpongeBob fell back down and Sandy knelt next to him, due to all the running his wound had reopened at there was a faint yet noticeable blood trail. The jocks and Bucky tried to open the boarded-up door but it was no use.

"You okay?" Mr. Dinkleberg asked as SpongeBob moved to a sitting position.

"Ugh... Yeah." He moaned in pain as he clutched his bleeding leg.

"Shit, that's gonna get infected." Sandy hissed as she examined the wound. "We've gotta get him inside, clean him up!"

"Bucky? How's that door coming?" Danny asked as he kept his eyes on the gate.

"I'm working on it, I'm working on it!" He grunted as he and Kwan took turns slamming into the door.

"Well, work faster, would ya?" She snapped impatiently. "It won't be long before those things outside figure out where we went and find us; ya know they can smell blood right?!"

"Lady, I ain't the one who's bleeding!" Bucky shouted, sending a glare at SpongeBob.

"Quit it, the pair of you!" Danny glared. "You're gonna bring more of 'em down on us! I'll see if I can find a way in." He said as he motioned for Mr. Dinkleberg to take his place watching the gate and he began wandering around for a way in. He noticed Dash looking through one of the boarded-up windows, trying to see if there was a way in through there. Danny saw red and immediately marched over to the blonde jock, fury clear on his face.

Dash saw him approaching fast and instantly knew what he was going to say.

"About what happened back there on the street-"

"I know, I don't know what happened, I just...froze up." Dash quickly tried to defend himself. "Hasn't that ever happened to you?"

"Just hear what I'm saying to you." Danny glared with all the rage, pain, and exhaustion that had been building up since the raid that cost them the motel and nearly half their group. "You put any of those kids in danger again, it won't be ghosts or infected you have to worry about." He warned, making Dash flinch.

"I hear you." He gulped as Danny walked away to check on SpongeBob and Sandy.

"How's he looking?" Danny asked he knelt on the injured man's other side.

"I'm alright." SpongeBob smiled weakly.

"Yer not alright." Sandy snapped. "You've reopened yer wound, yer losin' blood, and God only knows what might've gotten in there; it could be infected, it could be-"

"No offense, but you really need to work on your bedside manner." SpongeBob frowned.

"She's just worried about you, dude." Danny smiled. "Don't worry, we're gonna get you fixed up in no time, just as soon as we're inside, okay?"

"Please go and help Bucky." Sandy sighed impatiently. "We need to get him inside NOW!"

"I'm on it, just sit tight." Danny glared at her before he got up and went to talk to Bucky and Kwan, who was still trying to break down the door. "Hey, how're you holding up, dude?" He asked the blonde man.

"Kid, I appreciate the interest, but I don't think talking about my feelings right now is going to help us get inside this damn house," Bucky growled as he kicked the door, but it wouldn't budge.

"You think maybe someone's still inside?" Kwan asked.

"Nah, we'd have heard from 'em by now, all the racket we're making." Bucky shrugged. "But whoever was here did a pretty good job fortifying it, nice place to hole up... if we can just figure out how to get in." He sighed and Danny looked at the pet door.

"What's this? Looks like there's some kinda pet door here." He hummed in thought.

"I tried it already, that's locked too." Kwan sighed.

"Who the hell ever heard of a locked doggy door?" Said Bucky in irritation.

"I have." Tootie suddenly said. "My mom's neighbor had one just like that, it's radio-controlled, the dog wears a collar with a chip in it so the door only opens when the dog gets close to it."

"Alright, so... where's the dog?" Patrick asked. Danny looked around the garden and it was then that he noticed a small brown dog house sat at the far end of the garden. He looked inside but it was empty. It was then he saw a mound of dirt next to the doghouse with a thin wooden cross sticking out of it; a grave. It stank like hell. Getting a sudden idea, Danny quickly took the shovel from Mr. Dinkleberg and prepared to dig up the dirt mound.

"Hey, be careful." SpongeBob quickly said. "Digging up dead things isn't what it used to be, you know what I mean?"

"Yeah, I hear you." He nodded and started digging. Everyone but SpongeBob slowly approached the grave as Danny finished digging up the grave. In the grave lay a rotting dog's corpse with a collar still on. Setting the shovel aside, Danny bent down and picked up the small collar still around the corpse's neck, but he couldn't get it off. Just then the dog's head fell from its corpse and the collar comes off. Danny yelped and everyone jumped back in a mix of fear, surprise, and disgust as Sandy quickly turned around and vomited in the bushes.

"Are you okay?" Jimmy asked.

"I'm fine, honey; it's just tha smell." She smiled shakily as she tried not to gag. Danny quickly took out the collar, placed it near the pet door, and smiled when it buzzed and unlocked the pet door.

"Yes! Goddamn!" Bucky cheered as the group approached the door and Danny looked through the pet door.

"You see anything in there?" Mr. Dinkleberg asked.

"No, looks like it's been empty a while." He replied, his head still in the house. Just then, the sound of a large group of infected could be heard nearby. They were practically right behind the wall; they must have caught the scent of SpongeBob's blood trail.

"Whatever yer gonna do, do it fast!" Sandy exclaimed fearfully.

"Okay, lemme see if I can reach up in there." He said as he tried to reach the door handle, but he couldn't reach it. "Ugh... it's no good, I can't get it." He sighed as he crawled out and stood up. As the group began to argue about who should crawl through the pet door, Timmy suddenly rushed forward and crawled through before anyone could stop him.

"Timmy?!" Danny cried. "Goddamn it, get back here! Timmy Turner!" He shouted when the backdoor suddenly opened and Timmy was standing there with his hands raised.

"Ta-da!" The pink-hatted boy grinned widely.

"Good work, Timmy." Danny sighed in relief before glaring at the boy as Buky stepped through the door to ensure the house was safe. "But don't go shooting off like that without asking first, okay?"

"I was just trying to help." He pouted.

"I know and you did well; you just had me worried there for a minute." He gently warned the boy.

"Can we maybe have this conversation inside?" SpongeBob pleaded as he got up with Sandy and Patrick's help. "My leg's starting to hurt more."

"Looks okay from here, everybody in," Bucky called and everyone entered the house...