CHAPTER 28: THE BOOK OF MARSTON
Three days have passed since the assembly. Everyone is now getting along with one another. The Greasers and the Townies are not at each other's throats anymore, and that was a good thing. The Bullies aren't threatening to leave, that was a good thing too. And the Non-Clique students aren't scared anymore either. That too was good. It's all been relatively peaceful.
It has been raining for the past few days since the assembly, but now it's all sunny with little to no clouds. I decided to go out for a walk around campus today. As I walked out the front door into the bright sunlight, I couldn't help but feel that today was going to be a really good day. I walked from the Main Building over to the parking lot to check up on the Greasers patroling the gate. So far, everything looks good. There was a few Townies there though, but neither one of them were arguing with the Greasers. Man, Clayton really did set them striaght with that speech of his. With everyone doing okay here, I decided to continue my walk.
I then walked from the parking lot and started heading south towards the Athletics Area. But just as I got to the fountain, I couldn't help but to look at Harrington House. I still couldn't forgive myself for what happened to the Preps, after I promised to take them back to the school. We didn't have any use for the building, so it's pretty much abandoned. No one has even been in there since we cleared the school. I think I'm going to check the place out now. Maybe there's supplies in there that the Preps won't be needing now.
As I walked from the fountain to the front doors of Harrington House, I couldn't help but remember the time that I sneaked in the building to destroy Derby's prized venus fly trap. Deguising myself as one of the Preps, "sneaking" past all of them just to get to the greenhouse on the top floor. It was a task that I had to do from Dr. Slawter, my Biology teacher, back in the fall before this mess ever happened. Despite it being over half a year since completing the task and teaching the Preps a lesson, it felt like an entire lifetime has passed since it happened. I guess it's an effect of the zombie outbreak or something. After coming back to Bullworth, I feel like I had to grow up much quicker than before. Learn to be a man rather than continue being a teenager. Man, do I miss those days where all I had to worry about was teaching the bullies a lesson.
A while after reflecting on the past, I approached the doors, pushed them open, and saw that everything was okay in the first room. I went over to the second set of doors and opened them as well. Everything was okay within the main hall as well. I decided to go into the dormitories and look around for anything important. So I went to the set of double doors and went into the dorms. While I was in there, I looked around the bunks. I opened every chest, closest and draws that I could find. Now unless anyone thinks that used Aquaberry shirts, pants and underwear is important, then I found nothing useful. After a while of looking around, I then went up to Derby's room. I went through all his draws, his closest and chest to find anything. When I got to the bottom of the chest, all I found was a bottle of wine and a book. I didn't have any interest in the wine bottle, but the book seemed odd.
I opened the book up and looked at the contents inside. It was journal of some sort. A really old journal. So old that the pages were completely yellow. As I read the journal, I couldn't help but notice that it talked about what was going on. The journal talked about zombies, the same kind that we have right now. What we called Crawlers were Bolters, what we called Fat Chargers were Bruisers, and what we called Spitters were Retchers. It also talked about zombie animals and mythical animals. Of course, I haven't seen any of these mythical animals that it speaks of in the book. After looking around in the book, I flipped all the way to the front page. Right on the page it read, "Journal of John Marston". I don't know anything about him other than that he was a famous cowboy back in the early 20th Century. This must have been the book that Derby talked about when I was at Tad's place. This book must have some kind of significance with what's going on. I'm going to have to take it to Clayton. Maybe he'll know what to do after reading this.
I put the bottle back in the chest and the book in my back-pocket, then I left Harrington House to return to the Main Building. When I entered the Main Building, I went straight to Crabblesnitch's office. When I got to Crabblesnitch's office, I found Clayton talking to Pete and Zoe. Since they were all here, I can show them the journal that I found. "Hey Clayton, you're not going to believe what I found", I told him as I handed him the journal. "What is this?" he asks me. "I found it in Derby's room over in Harrington House. I figured you wanted to take a look at it", I told him. Clayton then opened the book up to the first page. "This can't be real", he says in disbelief. "What is it?" Zoe asks him. "This is the missing journal from the wild west legend, John Marston", Clayton tells them. "Wait, I thought he was illiterate", Pete says. "His former gang leader Dutch van der Linde taught him to read and write", Clayton tells him. He looked deeper into the book for a few minutes before saying, "I need some alone time to read this, if you guys don't mind". "Yeah, sure. We'll leave you to it", I told him.
Two Hours Later; 4:00 PM
After leaving him to read the book, Pete and I returned to the office to talk to Clayton about it. "So, what can you say about it?" I asked him as I entered the room. "Well this is amazing", he says out-loud. "I never knew that John Marston himself fought against zombies". "But is it relevant to what's happening?" I asked him. "The creatures are the same, but it's not like there's an aztec mask that's causing the situation", he says. "What are you talking about?" I asked him. "It's a curse. Something that has been cursed is causing the undead to roam the town. But whatever it is, I don't know", he explains. I thought about all that Clayton said. What could be causing all this to happen? After a moment, it finally sinked. "Grab the necklace", was what that Hispanic girl told him back at the church.
"The necklace", I said out-loud. "You said what now?" Pete asks me. "The Savages had a piece of jewelry that they may have stolen from somewhere, causing the undead to rise", I told them. "Where?" Clayton asks. "Back at the church", I answered. "And how do you know that the necklace caused all this?" Pete asks me. "Some girl came out of nowhere and told me to grab the necklace. When I grabbed it though, something weird happened", I told them. "Something weird?" Pete asks. "I can't explain it", I told him. "All I know is that it was very weird. I mean I saw these two girls and one of them was wearing the necklace. That's all I can remember".
"So, we have to recover a stolen piece of jewelry from the Savages or what's left of them?" Clayton asks. "Even if we do find it, where does it go and how do we know that it will stop the zombies?" "There's plenty of places around the town that the necklace could go, let alone the school", Pete then states. "Well, we better start searching then", I suggested. "Search for what?" Pete asks me. "I don't know. Anything that seems like that could hold jewelry", I told him. "That doesn't make any sense", Pete says. "Since when did zombies coming to life and eating people made any sense?" I told him. Clayton took a deep breath and then said, "Alright, let's start searching. Maybe there's a secret compartment somewhere in the main building". But before we could leave the room, Zoe came running into the room, sweating as if she ran all the way here.
"The last time you ran in here, the Greasers and Townies were beating the crap out of each other", I said to her. "We're being attacked by a group of people", Zoe tells us. "Were they wearing all gray?" I asked her. She nodded yes. "Go on the intercom and alert the entire campus about it. Pete, you protect her. Clayton, you're with me. You all know your jobs. Now get started", I ordered. Clayton and I then stormed out Crabblesnitch's office and grabbed a couple of weapons to use in the battle. "Alright, it's time to take these pricks down a notch", I said out-loud before leaving the Main Building.