Chapter 2: A Trip, A Fall, Yet A Recovery (Oh boy, we have titles now?!)
Also, in this story, take note: Pops's car is normal, it cannot fly.
After everyone was packed up, they met in the living room. Skips was the first to arrive, and after that, Rigby and Mordecai. HFG came next with a pained and worried look on his face, and everyone else came about at the same time.
With everyone present, Benson started to give out orders. "Skips, go get supplies- food and water, stuff that we can keep for a while. Don't get too much, just enough that, if we needed if, would last us for a few months, and an amount of sustenance you can fit in two cars that will also have our bags of clothing/other necessities in it. Muscle Man and HFG, load all of our bags into my car, and when Skips gets back, put the food and supplies into Pops's car. Make sure everything is ready. Mordecai and Rigby, gather up more bags for the food. We'll drive to the airport and take as much as we can with us. Pops, go helps Skips, and I need to go back to my apartment and get my belongings, and make sure we're ready to leave. Go, go, go!"
Quickly hurrying away, everyone was rushing to do their jobs. Rigby and Mordecai scoured the park for more bags while Pops and Skips were away.
While this was happening, Mordecai started thinking again.
After this ordeal is all over, will everyone still be here?
Will I still be here?
Will Rigby even still be here?
What about Margaret?
He hadn't seen Margaret in a while after they had a nasty argument. They had just formed a romantic relationship together, and he had fucked it up... Well, probably temporarily, he thought. He couldn't escape these thoughts. He thought about Rigby again, looking at him. He felt protective of him. He was, admittedly, scared. He wanted to hug him.
Yeugh, weird thoughts.
He brushed it away and concentrated back on working.
Deep in Rigby's mind, he was frightened too.
Rendezvous-ing back at the front of the house, the gang were all did that jobs, but there was a feel in the air around them that let you know that they all were affected by the news. Muscle Man was loading the last of the bags into a car.
"I got it," Skips said, aiding him with the bags. Wordlessly, they finished packing up and were ready to get out soon. Their car doors shut, and Muscle Man spoke into a walkie talkie. "Is this working?" he said.
"I got you loud and clear," Benson said.
As their cars pulled away towards the airport, a black plane soared above them.
On the way there, sitting in Benson's car, Rigby thought back to his childhood, mid-some-sort-of-awkward-mental-crisis-caused-by-the-severity-of-his-current-reality's-frighteningness. He thought back to when he had first met Mordecai- 4th grade. He was a new student who had just transferred to his school in WV from Montana. Referred to in elementary school as "that one annoying, spastic kid that no one really has any strong feelings for either way or hangs out with," Rigby had no friends until Mordecai. Usually at lunch he had sat alone, but seeing Mordecai sit alone, he took a chance and befriended him.
Mordecai eventually fit in very well, but Rigby, as a competitive friend, always stayed as Mordecai's closest friend. He really admired Mordecai; he was almost a role model. He was always friends with whoever, he didn't care if he was friends with the nerdiest kid in school and got made fun of for it. He gave everyone a chance and didn't care too much about what other people thought about it. That's what Rigby really admired about Mordecai, he was carefree.
It wasn't until about 9th grade that Rigby had developed feelings for Mordecai. Where he lived, he could never reveal himself as gay, knowing he belonged to a family who kept their traditional values and living in a part of society that could not accept him as that type of person. So, he never did anything about it. He figured it was just a phase, something brought about by his awkward adolescence.
However, this never really went away. The pressure to get a girlfriend was on him, but he just wanted Mordecai, ever since then. He thought it was weird, but slowly accepted it, even if it was a bad thing... maybe. He didn't know or care anymore.
Lately though, Mordecai had grown into a more affectionate friend. Sometimes they would have "bro hugs," and, although platonic, Mordecai was often not afraid to be honest with his feelings and himself around Rigby. Rigby could only hopefully imagine what that meant for himself. Mordecai... Although he had feelings for Margaret, sometimes he made Rigby feel really special, and this is what kept him going. Often because of this, Rigby found it hard to keep his feelings in, not knowing much about Mordecai in terms of how he'd react.
This train of thought was quickly interrupted as the two cars came to a stop at the airport. Sure enough, the airport was bustling and crowded. People were stampeding into the airport, desperately trying to save their own lives. Slipping in, the group found a place in front of a map of the airport to gather. HFG eyed the map while the others gathered. He saw Benson coming. "Uh, so what do we do here?" Benson thought for a moment, then said: "Alright. The airport, in order to save time, doesn't seem to be running security today, and.." HFG quickly fell out of the conversation and into his thoughts. Benson's ability to lead was something that kind of made him meant to lead the group, something that not even Skips had. He could always figure out a plan. He was, at a lot of times, genius. That's what HFG liked about him. He wondered how he got stuck working at the park.
"So, what we should do is-..." Benson quickly noticed screams coming from the left. Just like in the news, people began to run out of the airport.
"Oh, don't tell me..." Benson and Skips looked on into the distance to see a horde of people running for their lives, heading for the exit. The rest of the group followed. Benson raised an eyebrow as he saw the familiar image of bloodied and seemingly dead people chasing the crowd. "Well then..."
"Get out of the airport, back to the cars!" Muscle Man shouted.
Adrenaline pumped through the group's veins. Through the crowd of sprinting people, the group made their way through. Well, most of them. Rigby, was pushed and shoved in the crowd. He saw Pops in the distance, in the same situation he was. He called out to him. An arm hit him in the face. He called out to him again. Stumbling towards him, he tried to make it to Pops. Shoved again and feeling his head smash into the floor, Rigby's vision went black.
Back at the cars, the park staff regrouped. They all had their hands on their knees, trying to catch their breath. Suddenly, Skips and HFG looked around. "Where's Rigby and Pops?" HFG urgently said, panting.
Minutes later, Rigby awoke to the sound of gunfire. His head ached. A guard shooting at what appeared to be the diseased was rushed by two attackers. He shot one, and the other tackled him, ripping into his neck's flesh. It then focused it's gaze on Rigby. He caught notice of it's disgusting, livid face, and tried to back up- crawling backward, terrified. Over the constant ringing sound, he heard his name.
"Rigby! Rigby!" Mordecai was screaming. He saw the zombie-like creature run towards Rigby, running towards it and stabbing it, it falling to the ground in a heap. "Rigby? Are you okay! Get up!"
Rigby let himself fall to the ground. Thinking of nothing else, Mordecai scooped him up and ran out the exit. Skips took Pops, who was laying over to the right of the way to the baggage claim. He draped his arm over his shoulder. "We got them both, let's go! NOW!" Skips shouted from inside. Benson nodded to himself on the outside, and ran back toward the cars. When they got there, they quickly found a place to lay the two in each of the cars. Muscle Man and HFG sat in the front of Benson's car while Skips and Benson sat in the front of Pops's car, Pops laying in the back. Shutting the door, Muscle Man spoke into the walkie talkie in his hand. "Rigby's in the car, and step on it! They're right behind us!"
The two cars sped away, heading west.
Morby? Morby. Okay, so we have that. Also, holy shit, the zombies are here. Stupid people bringing their stupid diseases on airplanes. Am I right? I'm excited. Fair warning: People are going to die. Maybe. I don't know. Haven't decided yet. Maybe Thomas will be here, and then he'll die. You'll never know. Anyways, love you all, bye, keep it Shady if you know what I mean.
-Lucy