Ike walked into the bar, trying to hide his nerves. Everyone present looked up at him, so he just stoically nodded as he went up to the server. "I'd like some juice," he said.
The woman running the bar was demure, but she got him some juice. "Who're you? We don't get strangers around here none."
"I'm Ike. I'm a soldier, from the war. The good side."
"Well you'll wanna be careful," the lady said.
"I'm well aware, miss." It was scary, but he wasn't gonna show that.
"Hey you!" A man with green hair stood and looked at him menacingly. "Your kind ain't welcome 'round here! This here's the town of the bad side!"
"I don't want no trouble," Ike said.
"No fightin' in my bar," said the tender. "I'm Nephenee, and this here's Boyd. He means well."
"I got my eye on you," said Boyd.
The door burst open, and three people came in. Two were pretty obviously twins, and they were escorting a woman with green hair. "We got bigger problems than the war!" said the girl. "We found this lady and she has no memory!"
"And there are zombies all over outside!" the man agreed.
(Everyone looked at Geoffrey.
"What?" he said, totally innocent.
"Zombies?" Nephenee asked, even as Ike exclaimed, "I love it!"
"Sure, why not," said Boyd with giggles.
"I have to redo my entire character," Soren said petulantly, but he sat and began to erase stuff. He was the only one to write his stuff down.
Everyone got a few minutes to plan before…)
Boyd looked to Ike. "You're off the hook, do-gooder, so long as you help with the zombies."
Ike drew his sword. "Of course!"
"Braaaaaains!" said a zombie as it shambled inside. It had once been a woman, but now it was a foul and evil undead. Soon a million zombies came in too! The twins got their escortee into a corner of the bar before joining Ike, Boyd and Nephenee in fighting off the zombies. For lesser warriors, the battle would have been impossible, but for these great heroes it was easy, and soon the zombies were driven back. "Braaaaains," said the leader zombie with sadness as it escaped in the chaos.
"The zombies trashed my bar! Now I have no place to live!" Nephenee looked very sad as she put away her mighty lance.
"We can't stay here anyway," said the man. "My name is Geoffrey, and this is my twin sister Lucia. We're zombie hunters. And this is…" He looked to the girl they had rescued.
She stood up as if from a faint. "I do not know my name," she said with great sorrow. "Nor do I know anything else! I am deeply sorry!"
"Then I guess we have to give you a name for now," said Lucia. "How about we just call you Elincia?"
Elincia nodded. "Okay, thank you! I hope I can be helpful, and thank you for taking care of me!"
"So what do we do now?" Ike asked. "I'll lead us but I don't know where to go."
"We need to find a cure for the zombies," said Lucia. "So we need to find… uh… the head scientist place. Surely they'll know what to do!"
"All right! Follow me!" Ike marched from the empty bar, leading his group of heroes through the woods.
"Hold on!" called another woman, who was assisting a girl who was probably her sister. "My name is Lethe and this is my sister Lyre, and she's patient zero!"
"Gasp!" said Nephenee.
"What does that mean?" Boyd asked.
"It means she was the very first person to get the zombie sickness," Lethe explained. "She hasn't turned yet but she's the base of it all!"
"It huuuurts," mourned Lyre, "I just… want to eat brains… No! I must resist!"
"So we really want to take her to the scientist place," Geoffrey said. "They might use her to get a cure."
"Stop right there!" Standing on a nearby hill was another woman, flanked by the lead zombie from earlier. "You will hand over the woman with no memory and the patient zero to me! I am the evil mage who started the zombies!"
"Braaaaains," said the zombie with great excitement.
"Never, you evil witch!" Geoffrey declared, standing in front of Elincia.
"We won't turn over anyone to you!" Ike agreed with a steely glare. He also drew his sword.
"Then you will face my zombies! There are a billion of them now! Attack, my zombies!" She let out an impressive evil cackle.
"Braaaaaaaaaaaaains!" With that mighty cry, the zombies began to attack! Ike valiantly fought them off, as did the other heroes. He was pleasantly surprised how everyone in this group was good at fighting. Even Elincia had a sword. Lyre was the only one not fighting, because she was obviously trying to not join the zombies. It was very sad and dramatic.
"There are too many of them!" Nephenee cried.
"The scientist place is right over there!" Boyd exclaimed, pointing to a nearby building.
"Retreat!" Ike ordered, and the group ran to this place for safety.
The building was calm and cool, and they were greeted by a large friendly dog. It made Ike feel relief that there was something normal in this scary world.
"Who are you?" demanded a man with very smart-looking glasses and a clipboard. "And how did you get past the guard beast?"
The guard beast licked Ike's cheek. "I think he knows we're good people," said Ike happily.
"Hmm. Well, I am Dr. Soren, and I am the lead scientist at the Center for Disease Control," he said. "I am currently the only doctor still alive and am researching the zombie virus."
"Well we are two soldiers," Boyd pointed to himself and Ike, "a bartender," to Nephenee, "two zombie hunters," to Geoffrey and Lucia, "a lady with no memory," to Elincia, "and patient zero and her big sister."
"We are also being hunted by the lady who created the zombies, and the lead zombie," said Lethe. She looked back to where they came from, and in fact the zombie and lady were standing on the porch.
"Ah yes, that's Calill, a former doctor who went rogue and is trying to destroy the world with her evil zombies," said Soren with derision. "Highly unethical. And the zombie leader used to be an assistant named Mia before she was so evilly corrupted. So, I can't tell you anything about the amnesiac, but I could use the patient zero to make a zombie cure."
"Will it kill her?" Lethe demanded firmly, ears pinning back.
"Braaaaains," Lyre said with great pain. "Noooo... no brains..."
"Yes," said Soren. "And it will take time, during which we will likely be overrun by zombies."
The glass door to the room opened just slightly. "Braaaains," said the zombie with great enthusiasm. The zombie then squealed in joy when the guard beast approached and began to lick her.
"You won't hurt my sister!" Lethe declared.
"I will die for the good of the world," said Lyre with great drama. "Please, sister. Let me die to save the world!"
"Never!"
"Wait!" Elincia exclaimed. "The great amount of scary things going on just made me remember who I am! I am the lost Princess Anastasia!"
Everyone looked at her.
"And, and my blood is the key to the cure for the zombie virus!" she added. "The zombies were first made by, uh… Ras…"
"Rasputin," said Soren.
"Rasputin, who betrayed my family evilly!"
"That's right!" said Calill through the open slot in the door. "Rasputin was my bestie and he taught me to make the zombies! And then I betrayed him because I am evil!"
Geoffrey dramatically took Elincia's hand. "I won't let anyone hurt you. I'm in love with you, Princess Elincia Anastasia!"
Everyone gasped.
"Well my sister is ALSO the cure, so no one is going to hurt her either," said Lethe, looking annoyed.
"I could maybe take some cure from both of them and then neither dies?" Soren suggested.
"So… no one has to sacrifice themselves?" Lucia asked, looking disappointed.
"I guess?"
"That's a good thing," Ike said firmly.
"Yes, well, but you have to survive my zombies first!" Calill cackled evilly.
"The zombies need to attack outside," said another, deeper voice from further in the medical complex. "I just cleaned the floors!"
"Okay, Daddy!" Ike squealed. "Er I mean, okay, uh… dramatic voice!"
"So I will take Lyre and Elincia and make a cure," said Soren, "While the rest of you go fight the zombies. Also, take my guard beast, but be warned he might turn on you."
"Woof," said the guard beast.
Ike drew his sword. "Let's go, heroes! We will save the day!" He charged outside, swinging his mighty blade to start smiting zombies. His new team of heroes followed him and a great battle ensued. The guard beast was very fickle and licked everyone.
"Oh no, I'm being eaten by zombies!" Nephenee exclaimed. "Oh no, I am dead!" She fell over. The guard beast immediately set upon her dead self.
"Why are you doing this?" Ike demanded of Calill, "This is evil and bad! You killed poor Nephenee!"
"Yes, well, I am evil!" she exclaimed, "I want the world to die because of the war!"
"What war?" Lucia asked.
"The one that um, that we talked about earlier," said Calill. "You know, the good and evil one that Ike and Boyd were fighting in."
"Oh, right."
Boyd dramatically dropped his axe. "But now we're friends! And if we can be friends, so can everyone else and the war can end!"
Calill looked thoughtful. "That's a good point…"
Soren came out with a cup. "Here, I made a cure. It worked on Lyre, so let's see if it works on the zombies." He handed it to the head zombie, who drank it.
"Yum," she said happily. "Definitely I'm cured!"
Everyone cheered. Elincia and Lyre came outside too, both drinking from juice boxes.
"And as the new Queen, I hereby declare that the war is over and everyone is friends!" said Elincia with appropriate gravitas.
Everyone cheered more.
"Since Mia is cured, then all the zombies are cured," Calill agreed.
"But shouldn't you go to jail?" Lethe asked thoughtfully.
"No one died," said Calill.
"Oh, okay."
"I did," Nephenee pointed out, still giggling because the guard beast was furiously licking her.
"The guard beast clearly brought you back to life," Lucia said.
"Okay!" She got back up and gave the guard beast a kiss on the snoot.
The dramatic voice opened the back door. "So heroes, it's time for your hero feast."
"I'll lead the way!" Ike exclaimed, and the group ran inside for their reward.
"That was so much fun," Ike gushed over dinner, when everyone had gone home. "I bet we can do stuff like that every day of summer!"
"Not EVERY day," said Soren around his grilled cheese. "I like them, but Geoffrey really ruined everything with the zombies."
"Not ruined," Ike argued. "It was fun."
"Says you."
Mama and Daddy were giving each other worried looks, which Ike picked up on. "What's wrong?" he asked them.
They both looked surprised. "Oh… just good and bad news, sweetie," said Mama. "We'll talk later. So what was the original plan?"
"It was gonna be a war story," said Soren. "Then I was gonna fire the nukes and it was gonna be an apocalypse story."
Ike was caught off guard by how funny that was, and he just laughed and laughed and laughed. Surely the bad news couldn't be that bad, and then they would have the best summer ever.
After showers and teeth-brushing, usually Soren and Mist fell asleep very fast but Ike didn't. He usually used that time to get Daddy or Mama snuggles. He didn't mind sharing his parents with Mist or Soren, but it was nice to be alone with his parents once in awhile too. Daddy in particular was a big cuddle bug.
"Ike," said Mama with sadness, which made Ike nervous. He felt Daddy's arms tighten around him, and Ike felt even MORE nervous. "Like I said earlier... we have… good and bad news."
"Uh huh…?" Ike had never been more nervous in his whole life. He wasn't used to these kinds of sad looks from his parents!
"Soren's been adopted."