Author's Note:
Back again with another update to this story. As always, let's answer some reviews first.
Guest: Yes, when it comes to this story, and any other Total Drama AU stories I write, both past and future, assume that they are all wearing their usual Total Drama outfits.
TheChrisanthemum: To be fair, back when I wrote Fang, Gwen also got attacked relatively quickly. And as for Mike's multiple personalities, it was certainly going to be revealed to Zoey much sooner than in canon TD, as Mike's been living on the island for some time, and thus everyone around him would know about it.
Space Zodiac: Thanks for all the praise and critiques! I'm glad you enjoyed Fang and are enjoying Zeke so far. While Zoey is the central focus character of this story, I do hope that I can put more focus on other characters once they become relevant to the plot, more so than I did with Fang. Although, keep in mind that some characters will not get as much focus due to being insignificant to the plot as well as getting killed off relatively quickly. There's one particular character in mind that I've planned to die much sooner than I think anyone's expecting. But again, thanks for the critique! It's actually thanks to your review that helped make much of this chapter possible, as I was planning something else initially and decided to push that plot point back a chapter so we can get some more character interaction that's outside of Mike and Zoey.
And now the story. Enjoy!
Zoey barely slept a wink that night. Every small creak in the floorboards was enough to get her heart racing. Ever small sound could mean her attacker was in the house, creeping along to finish the job.
She had locked her door tight to ensure no one would get in, but that didn't put her at ease. Not even the knowledge that the police had left a squad car on the street could make her calm down. Not after how easily the man had been able to nearly kill her.
She wasn't even sure it was man. The thing that had attacked barely looked human. With how disheveled he had looked, how was he even alive?
Sleep eventually did come for Zoey, but it was a restless one, plagued with nightmares and feelings of dread. By the time the early signs of dawn crept through her window, she felt like she had only slept for more than an hour.
That didn't stop her from rolling out of bed with a moan when too much daylight spilled into her room. "Great," she muttered, getting to her feet. She slowly changed into a fresh pair of clothes and headed into the kitchen to grab a bite to eat.
She hadn't been able to eat dinner the previous night due to the attack. As such, she was pretty much starving. So, she opened up the refrigerator to find something to eat. After a minute of searching, she found an apple. As she pulled it out and took a bite, there came a knock at the door. With the apple in her mouth, she cautiously looked through the peephole, relaxing when she saw that it was only Mike.
Taking a bite of the apple, Zoey opened the door. Mike brightened when he saw her. "Zoey, you're okay," he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Yeah, I'm okay," Zoey said. "Are you okay? Is your brother okay?" As Cameron had said, Zoey played along with Mike's belief that she still didn't know about his multiple personalities.
"My brother?" Mike looked confused, but then nodded quickly. "Uh, yeah, yeah, he's okay. What about you? You're the one that got attacked."
"I'm fine, Mike. Really. Thanks for stopping by."
Mike rubbed the back of his head nervously. "I—I know you've been through a lot, but maybe another day on the town, hanging out with friends will make you forget what happened last night?"
Zoey knew that she would never, ever forget what happened to her. But she didn't want to say no to Mike, especially after he saved her life. So, she said, "Sure."
"Great," Mike said with a relieved smile. "I'll let the others know, and we'll meet them at the mall. Sound good?"
Zoey nodded. "I guess." She didn't really feel like going to the mall, but if it would help take her mind off what had happened, she was willing to give it a shot.
Shawn whistled as he walked down the sidewalk. Despite appearances, he was, as always, on high alert. Even more so now after what had happened the previous night to the new girl, Zoey.
Based on the brief description of the attacking man that had been released to the presses, Shawn was almost certain that it was a zombie. The only reason he wasn't fleeing to his bunker at this moment was because his dad had kicked him out of the house to restock the pantry. Hopefully, he wouldn't run into any zombies on the trip.
Of course, looking around at the town, no one else seemed to be fearing for their lives that they were in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. For that matter, it didn't seem like there were any zombies in town. But that didn't fool Shawn. There were probably a dozen zombies just out of sight, waiting to infect everyone in an instant.
So, Shawn was on his guard. Every slight movement out of the corner of his eye could have been a zombie waiting to eat his brains. People called him crazy for being this paranoid, but he knew that one day, all his paranoia would pay off.
He entered the store cautiously—not just because of the threat of zombies, but also because the manager, Mr. Morris, didn't like him too much, especially after he had accidentally taken down several shelves while attacking a zombie that turned out to just be an old man with a skin condition.
Luckily for Shawn, the only other person in the store was Topher, a guy from school that worked part time there. As usual, he was looking at himself in the mirror and combing his hair.
"Hey, it's the zombie nut," Topher said when he finally noticed Shawn's arrival.
"No time for that, Topher," Shawn said. "The zombies are coming, and I need supplies. Is Mr. Morris here?"
"No one's seen Mr. Morris in two days," Topher explained, still not turning around from the mirror.
Shawn frowned. "That's not like him." His eyes widened. "He must have already been attacked by a zombie!"
"There's no such thing as zombies, Shawn. He probably just took a surprise vacation."
"Not likely," Shawn insisted. "When was the last time Mr. Morris ever took time off?"
Topher finally turned around from the mirror. "You're being paranoid again, Shawn. This is why you don't have any friends."
"I have friends!" Shawn protested.
"Yeah, the most unpopular teenagers on the island. You can't even get invited to the Milton Manor party tomorrow, like I did."
Shawn paused. "Wait—you got invited to the party?"
Topher puffed out his chest. "Yes, I did. And only the best teenagers on the island get invited to a Milton Manor party. And that doesn't include you."
"Do you think I care about going to a party when there are zombies on the loose?" Shawn countered. "Now, can I get the food I need or not?"
Topher shoed him away. "Just get one you need and get out. My agent could be calling at any moment to tell me I've won a part in a hit show."
Shawn resisted the urge to snort at that as he moved into the aisles. Topher was always trying to get himself on TV in one way or another. He had even once stolen the phone of a visiting television host to try to badmouth him and get him replaced with himself. There was almost nothing that he wouldn't do to try to make himself look good. But at least he was an idiot, unlike Scott. The farm boy, Shawn knew, may not look like it, but he was a conniving villain that could easily manipulate people into doing what he wanted.
As Shawn finished getting the last of the food that his dad had wanted, the door to the store opened and a tall, dark-skinned girl entered, carrying a small packet of papers. "G'day, Topher," she said in her usual Australian accent.
"Oh, hey, Jasmine," Topher said. "What do you want?"
"Just come by to put up some missing posters," Jasmine answered.
"Missing posters?" Shawn popped up from behind the aisle.
Jasmine smiled and tipped her hat to him. "G'day, Shawn. Yeah, there's been a lot of reports of people having gone missing over the past few days. I'm just spreading the word."
"Just put them up on that poster board in the back," Topher directed her to the back of the store.
"Thanks, mate." Jasmine headed to the back. Shawn, collecting himself, followed to the back.
"How many are missing?" he asked cautiously.
Jasmine began putting up the missing flyers. "About half a dozen. No notes, no sightings of them leaving the island. It's almost as if they just vanished off the face of the Earth."
"Vanished off the face of the Earth?" he repeated.
"That's what I said." Jasmine offered him a smile. "So, any zombie sightings in the area?" She snickered slightly at the thought.
That's what Shawn really liked about Jasmine. Unlike everyone else on the island, she didn't just dismiss his zombie fanaticism as pure fantasy. Whether it be playing along to be nice or actually believing him, she always indulged his conversations about the undead. "No zombie sightings yet," he reported. "But they can walk underwater, so they could be anywhere."
"Totally." Jasmine finished putting up the posters. "Well, I've got to run. I'll see you." She left the store with another snicker. Shawn watched her go for a few seconds before looking back at the flyers she had tacked up.
She was right. Nearly half a dozen people had gone missing in the past few days, including Mr. Morris. And the more Shawn thought about it, the more he realized that there was only one possible explanation for what was going on.
"That's ridiculous, Shawn," Mike insisted.
"Oh yeah?" Shawn challenged. "Five people missing within 72 hours of each other? A sighting of a freak trying to bite and tear at people's flesh? It has to be zombies!"
"Get a grip, Shawn," Cameron told him. "There's a perfectly logical explanation for all this—an explanation that doesn't involve fictional creatures rising from the grave to tear us all to shreds."
"Yeah," Zoey agreed with a slight shudder. "I saw that thing firsthand; I don't think it was a zombie."
"Then what do you guys think is going on then, huh?" Shawn asked, looking around nervously. "We should be running to my secure zombie survival bunker right now."
"Um, isn't your zombie survival shelter just your basement?" Samey asked shyly.
"Yeah, for now. But with everyone working together—"
"Or we could just go to my place to play video games and forget about this whole thing," Sam interrupted.
"You guys aren't listening to me," Shawn insisted. "Something bad is about to happen. These disappearances have to be related to the thing that attacked Zoey last night."
"Can we please not talk about that?" Zoey suggested. Mike put a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"Zoey's right," Mike said, "we should just be hanging out and having fun, not worrying about some homeless nut that will probably get caught by the police before too long."
"Oh yeah?" Shawn challenged.
"I don't think this is a fight you're going to win, Shawn," Brick warned.
"B's with me, right B?" Shawn looked over at the ever-silent B, who merely offered a shrug in response.
"Relax, Shawn," Mike told him. "Like I said, the police will find the guy and that will be that."
"What about the disappearances?"
"Probably just a coincidence."
"Oh yeah?" Shawn slammed a fist down on the table. "If you're so confident on that, then I know exactly who to see."
The table, apart from Zoey and B, let out a collective groan. "Not her," Sam complained.
"She creeps me out," Samey agreed with a shudder.
"If you're all so sure that there's nothing to worry about, then let's just go see her and see what she thinks," Shawn decided.
Mike let out a sigh. "Fine. We'll go, if only so we can put this thing behind us."
"What's going on?" Zoey asked. "Who are we going to go see?"
Mike closed his eyes. "The only one on the island that might be able to shed some light on all this. We're going to see Dawn."
Alive: Amy, Anne Maria, B, Beardo, Brick, Cameron, Dakota, Dave, Dawn, Ella, Ezekiel, Jasmine, Jo, Lightning, Max, Mike, Rodney, Sam, Samey, Scarlett, Scott, Shawn, Sky, Sugar, Topher, Zoey
Dead: No one (for now)
And now it's time for the friend group to get some answers. But will it be the answers they seek?
Originally, I was going to have it be just Mike and Zoey going to visit Dawn, but after realizing that I should have more character interactions besides the two focus characters, I decided to make everyone go and added the entire scene at the store to get some interaction between Shawn and Jasmine. Oh, and getting Topher to appear. Since Total Drama doesn't exist in this universe, there's no Chris McLean for Topher to idolize himself by, and thus, he has to try to get famous a different way. I'm sure you'll all catch the nod to actual events from TDPI involving Topher pretty easily.
Should have one or two more chapters before the bodies start piling up. That's when the real fun begins. Cue Max-like maniacal laughter.
Anywho, that's all from me. Make sure you hit that favorite/follow button to stay informed on future updates, and don't forget to leave a review to let me know how I'm doing. As this chapter makes evidence, constructive criticism can help make this story even better than my original plans for it were. Until next time, this is Guest 1138, reminding you that one does not simply walk into Mordor. Ciao!