AN1: So, it's been like five months since my last update. I'm not sure what to tell you. I just had a burning need to start something very different and work on that for a while. That being said I'm grateful for all the people who reviewed and messaged me asking about this story. Just so you know I have no plans on giving it up. Just… there may be long delays between updates. For the time being I'll make some headway here. It might not seem like it but the more reviews and support I get the more encouraged I am to write so something to think about if you enjoy this story. Sorry if my long absence from this story caused anyone any kind of physical or emotional pain XD
AN2: Today my femslash recommendation is once again from the BtvS universe. In my quest to include good stories that aren't necessarily all that well known or popular I give you Chicago, My Kind of Town by lizardmm which can be found right here on . It is a short-ish story (38k) that is all kinds of fun and sexy. There are multiple stripper scenes. Highly recommend. Also lizardmm is a fantastic femslash FF author on this site but for some reason her works are criminally under read. If you want a good batch of femslash check out her other works. There is enough there to keep you busy for a long while. Well worth the time.
As always if you like a fic I recommend please let me know somehow. I like to know if people are enjoying my recommendations and would love to hear your thoughts on them.
00
"The school is going to be swarmed by zombies in less than five minutes."
Bella froze, looking at Alice with wide eyes and a slightly open mouth. It was just so… sudden. Unbelievable even. Who would attack a school in broad daylight? Biting her lip Bella asked tentatively, "Are you sure?"
"Of course I'm sure!" Alice said a little snappishly, drawing looks from the few people in the library. The pixie sized vampire stood up and began pacing while running her hands through her short hair. "This is crazy. Who does this? In broad daylight? In a school? It's just…" Alice said before she trailed off. To Bella it seemed like Alice was having a hard time wrapping her head around the idea that someone would so flagrantly break the unwritten rules of the supernatural world and expose themselves like this. Bella could relate. She was having a hard time believing it herself.
However whatever her faults Bella had always been good about keeping her head in a crisis. Seeing the pacing and panicking vampire Bella knew that for the moment at least she needed to take control of the situation. If zombies were indeed about to attack the school they needed to act now.
Standing up Bella walked over to Alice and grabbed her arm to stop her from pacing. The vampire whirled to look at her, and while she didn't exactly look panicked she did look shocked and overwhelmed. Taking a deep breath Bella forced her mind to prioritize and come up with some kind of plan.
"If you're sure zombies are coming we need to get people out of here," said Bella, her mind working furiously, "is there a fire alarm nearby? If we pull that then the teachers should get all the students outside right?"
As she watched Alice's stupefied and stunned look slowly morphed into one of uncharacteristic grim seriousness. Her brows furrowed slightly and her mouth pulled into a tight line. "Yeah… yeah good idea. These people shouldn't be here for something like this and the commotion of them leaving might scare that Taylor guy off. The confusion might even keep anyone from noticing anything unusual like pale copse-like people walking around. Right. There's a fire alarm in the hallway just outside the library we can use."
Bella nodded at that, swallowing to moisten her suddenly dry throat. This was going to get hairy. "Ok. Let's do it then."
With nervous steps Bella walked towards the exit of the library with Alice at her side all the while casting glances out the library windows. Nothing unusual out there yet. As she walked out of the library Bella looked over at Alice. While she was glad she had the other vampire with her Bella still found herself wishing Victoria was there. She always felt better with Victoria at her side and unlike with Alice the two of them knew how to work together. Even though she found herself suddenly trusting Alice more than she had just a scant hour ago Bella still had no idea how the pixie would hold up when the stuff hit the fan. Bella would have told the vampire to leave so she wouldn't get hurt if she thought there was a chance in hell that Alice would listen to her.
It occurred to her then that she should call Victoria and let her know what was going on (even with the unpleasant conversation that was likely to follow on account of her leaving the house). She was about to ask Alice to borrow her phone when the petite vampire reached up and pulled the school's fire alarm. Bella wasn't sure how loud fire alarms were supposed to be but this one seemed to have the volume set on max. The teen winced at the sudden shrill sound that was so loud it made it hard to hear herself think. She saw Alice grit her teeth and briefly cover her ears as the sound reached her sensitive hearing.
Thinking furiously about their next move Bella's first instinct was to flee. She didn't want to get trapped in a building when zombies attacked and she didn't fancy getting stuck in the press of people when students started coming out of their classrooms shortly. Bella turned to Alice when she noticed the vampire staring off into space, a blank expression on her face Bella was starting to associate with her visions. Moments later Alice snapped out of it before turning worried eyes to Bella.
"We can't leave. They already have the building surrounded. If we try to make a run for it we'll be surrounded and overwhelmed," Alice half-yelled over the din of the fire alarm. "I think our best bet is to find the rest of my family. We can try either making a run for the cars or making a stand here at the school." Bella noticed her yellow eyes were suddenly wide and a little panicky. The teen got the impression Alice hadn't been in a situation like this before. Bella suddenly realized that Alice was sort-of indirectly leaving the choice of what to do next up to her. It felt a little strange. Unless she was alone Victoria was always the one who called the shots.
The truth was she didn't want to be surrounded by strange vampires during a crisis but… what choice did she have? At this point her choices were either take her chances with the Cullens or with the zombies. Tori is going to kill me. Still if five vampires were willing to fight the zombies off and managed to not eat her in the process…
"Let's find your family," Bella tried to say firmly but couldn't quite contain the trepidation in her voice, "I have a hard time seeing any number of zombies overwhelming five vampires working together."
Alice gave her a tight grateful smile. "Yeah, I'm sure you're right. Come on," she said reaching for Bella's hand, "Jasper's classroom is closest. Let's go find him first."
Hand in hand the two of them moved quickly down the hallway. Bella said nothing at the contact still finding it a bit awkward to touch other vampires but to her surprise the teen also found it a bit reassuring. Holding hands proved to be a good move when seconds later it seemed like every classroom door opened and the students started pouring out almost simultaneously. Most of the students looked annoyed, confused or happy to be missing class and trying to talk to their friends. Bella wished she could warn them somehow but over the din of the fire alarm no one was going to listen to a crazy girl screaming about zombies. The teenager only hoped everyone got out before anyone got hurt.
They were soon pushing against the crowd swimming upstream as the student body headed for the exits and Alice and Bella tried to make their way deeper into the school. Once or twice teachers tried to stop them but they simply ignored them or dodged around their grabbing hands. Alice was the first to spot Jasper who looked incredibly uncomfortable being pressed shoulder to shoulder with students as they made their way towards the exits.
"Jazz!" called out Alice. The two vampires quickly spotted each other and Bella had to school her face to hide her apprehension. The vampires ignored her momentarily only having eyes for each other.
Jasper obviously figured out right away that something was wrong. Pushing aside students in a mostly gentle fashion he led the three of them into a newly abandoned classroom. He turned to look at the two of them, golden eyes filled with concern.
"What's going on darlin'?" he asked loud enough to be heard.
To Bella's annoyance Alice began to speak to Jasper too fast and too low for her to hear. I really hate getting left out of conversations like this. Still it was the fastest way to convey the information. As Bella watched Jasper's face morphed from concern, to wide eyed incredulous disbelief, to a grim almost professional sort of determination.
"If we're going to find the others we need to do it quickly!" Bella yelled over the fire alarm, "if they're outside and we are still in here things are going to get much more complicated."
Jasper's eyes snapped to her, giving her a brief evaluating look before nodding sharply. "You're right," he said, "let's get a move on. Ros-"
They were interrupted by yelling echoing from the hallway outside, first one, then two, and in seconds it sounded like a huge crowd of people were suddenly screaming in panic. It took Bella a moment to realize who was making all that noise.
It was the students. The students were screaming. Bella went pale as a sheet.
Oh no, she thought, please don't let anyone die because of me.
00
Edward had been brooding in his Algebra 2 class when the fire alarm went off. He winced at the loud noise and a feeling of irritation crept over him. Edward had been deep in thought about what his next move should be in regards to Bella, the girl who was his mate. He still didn't know what to do about the disturbing revelations of the day before.
Bella can do magic, he thought with no small amount of despair.
The Good Book very clearly spoke out against the evils of witchcraft and magic. If people were to save their souls, how could they engage in such unnatural acts? It was no doubt due to this corrupting influence that Bella was palling around human drinking vampires and getting attacked by zombies. What other possible explanation could there be?
Edward felt he clearly understood what his duty was. He needed to be the one to guide Bella away from the unholy use of magic and this dangerous path she was on. Still, he despaired. How would he do such a thing? How would he get the girl to understand just how wrong her current lifestyle was? That it would no doubt get her killed and damn her soul forever?
Along with the rest of his class Edward stood up and headed out the door of his classroom herded by their frazzled looking math teacher. Edward however hardly noticed. He'd done enough fire drills in his time and he was too involved with his own thoughts to pay much attention to his surroundings.
Of course if he was going to save Marie he had to take care of one problem at the time. The most pressing one was whoever had tried to kill her the night before. It seemed clear to him some other practitioner of dark sorceries was after her. He knew enough about how these things worked to deduce that much. Edward remembered his mother telling their family how Bella had been scared and running from something. It made perfect sense that whoever was controlling the zombies was the person she was fleeing from. Edward's fist clenched at his side. He would be the one to stop them. Then after he saved Bella from whoever was trying to kill her she would be much more amenable to listening to reason. It was a good plan. The trick however would be pulling it off.
His classroom just happened to be the closest to the exits so before he knew it Edward and his entire class were exiting the school. The vampire would have remained lost is his maudlin thoughts but suddenly he caught a certain familiar scent in the air. Edward's head snapped up, suddenly on full alert as he scanned the area all around the school.
There! With his superior vision Edward quickly spotted what he had smelled. Figures of mostly young men in familiar oversized clothes and hoodies concealing their faces. They were exactly the same as last night. Zombies. Edward instinctively bared his teeth and growled barely keeping the noise low enough not to alarm the students around him. There were at least twenty that he could see from his current vantage point peeking from behind trees and from the shadowed corners of houses. Watching and waiting.
What are they doing here? Edward asked himself. Then suddenly it hit him. They were after Bella again. They had to be. Somehow they had found out this is where she went to school.
After running the scenario in his head a few times Edward grinned. Bella had stayed home from school that day, he had made sure to look and confirm that fact that very morning. That meant that his sweet Marie wasn't in any danger right now. It also meant that her pursuers had provided him with a golden opportunity.
Whoever is controlling these zombies has got to be around here somewhere, Edward thought, if I can find them right now then I can eliminate the threat to Marie once and for all. Then she'll have to listen to me when I tell her we are mates and that it is my job to guide her down the righteous path.
Things had not gone well with him and Bella the night before but that was hardly his fault. Now here on the very next day he had a chance to make up for any ground he may have lost. If such divine providence wasn't proof he and Marie were meant to be together he didn't know what was. With these thoughts firmly in mind Edward began to sift through thoughts nearby in order to find something that might indicate where the witch or wizard controlling these creatures was.
It took him less than a minute to find the thoughts of the wizard controlling the walking corpses. Though it was at the very edge of his range the thoughts were especially loud and disciplined making them exceptionally easy for Edward to pick out from amongst the crowd of humans. With some effort he focused on that one mind and that one mind alone.
"Hold position. Search for the girl. Do not attack. Hold position. Search for the Girl. Do not attack."
The voice gave the same commands over and over with a focus that could only be achieved through extensive training. Edward scanned the street, his power giving him a general idea of where the thoughts were coming from. There. Parked up a side street maybe a block away was an inconspicuous navy late model Cadillac with dark tinted windows. Right away Edward could tell there was something unusual about it since he could not see in the windows – his vampire vision should have made such a task trivial. Edward smirked. I've got you now.
Edward ran at human speed to one of the streets parallel to the Cadillac ignoring the yells of a teacher telling him to get back with the rest of the students. At a quick jog Edward slipped unnoticed past a couple of immobile zombies before turning down a side alley. Cutting across to where he knew the Cadillac was parked Edward congratulated himself on the cleverness of his plan. Sure attacking a car in broad daylight was risky but he could make it look like nothing supernatural was going on in case someone was paying attention. Before long Edward came to the end of the alley almost directly across the street from his target.
I've got you now. You'll pay for going after my mate, He silently swore to himself. There was a convenient piece of discarded rebar in the alley which Edward picked up. He didn't need it but it would make a good cover in case anyone was looking. With a burst of motion Edward ran straight at the car aiming to take the occupants by surprise. Lifting the piece of rebar high in the air he brought it down on the passenger side window as hard as he could.
There was a flash of light and Edward felt himself being flung away from the car all the way across the street. He landed on his back, his mind inexplicably hazy and confused for a few long moments. What had happened? Had that been magic?
The car's engine started up with a roar and that was the last push Edward needed to finally come back to his senses after the magical whiplash. The wheels skidded before the car took off down the street with all the power it's V-8 engine could muster. Distantly Edward heard the hasty mental command as the car sped off.
"Enter the school. Eliminate the girl at all costs!"
As he saw the car speeding away Edward's predator instincts took over. He wasn't about to let the danger to his destined mate get away that easily. Seeing prey run was like a red flag to a creature such as a vampire. Suddenly uncaring of who saw what Edward began to chase after the Cadillac which was already going at speeds of over a hundred miles per hour. The vampire cut into an alley hoping to cut the car off further down the street.
Unnoticed by him the hundred plus zombies stationed around the school obeyed their master's last command. As one they all ran towards the school murder and mayhem on their small minds as they sought to complete their mission at all costs.
00
It was a massacre.
When the students who were still exiting the school were suddenly attacked by pale figures who began to rip them apart like they were made of cardboard they understandably panicked. The zombie's preferred method of attack was to grab a limb and pull dismembering people with clumsy brutality. While some students ran away from the school most had seen the zombies approach from all directions and tried to do what seemed the most logical thing to their panicked minds – run back into the school.
Of course with half the student body still trying to exit the school at the same time this plan did not work well. Students began to push and pull and trample each other in their desire to get away from the insane murders killing their fellow students in inexplicable ways. The bottleneck of people prevented the zombies from entering the school easily prompting them to start killing indiscriminately in their attempts to force their way through the crowd in order to find their target, the witch that went by the name Isabella Black. This in turn only caused more students to try to flee inside therefore getting in the way of the murderous corpses. It became a mutually reinforcing cycle that increased the casualties dramatically.
That day would be remembered as the most horrifying event in Forks history.
00
Bella was in the empty classroom with Alice and Jasper when the screaming began. The three of them shared a panicked look before Alice spoke up.
"What the hell is going on?" she said, a touch of hysteria tingeing her voice.
"Good heaven protect us," said Jasper almost like a curse, "look!" he said pointing out the classroom windows.
There were a few zombies ambling around almost aimlessly right outside the windows as if looking for something. Bella could see a few other zombies running towards the school, closing the distance and headed to where the obvious doors were. More of them still were shambling around at different distances from the school almost if placed there to catch anyone trying to flee. It was an infestation. Bella thought she could see at least ten on this side of the school alone and who knew how many were trying to get inside. All along the panicked screaming of students and the sounds of running echoed throughout the school. It was utter and complete chaos.
Students ran aimlessly past the classroom the two vampires and the witch hiding in. Bella watched as Jasper stepped out into the hallway. She moved so she could see what he was doing. As she watched Jasper caught a zombie that was running by chasing fleeing students by the throat. With a quick twist of his hands he broke the zombie's neck and spun its head nearly one hundred and eighty degrees. Jasper frowned when this didn't kill the zombie, in fact it barely seemed to slow it down.
"You have to destroy the brain," said Bella, somehow managing to keep a numb sort of calm, "it's really the only way."
Jasper glanced in her direction and gave her a slight nod before he punched the struggling zombie in the head visibly caving in its skull. It still wasn't enough. The zombie still struggled and kept trying to escape Jasper's iron grip. The male vampire had to give it one more vicious blow to the head before the zombie finally stopped moving. He dropped the creature to the ground with a disgusted look. Alice looked on with a worried and anxious look on her face.
"Jazz," she said sounding torn, "doing that kind of thing will out us as not normal."
Jasper's eyes flickered to Bella and a look of understanding passed between them. Alice had never been in a situation like this before. She wasn't quite getting it. Jasper turned to his mate and put his non-bloody hand on her shoulder. "I think the time for subtlety is over darlin'," he said, "I don't want you holding back on account of trying to appear human, do you hear me? We worry about all those other details after the fact. Right now getting out of this in one piece is all that matters. Do you understand?"
Jasper's calm and steady tone and his physical presence seemed to reassure Alice. She swallowed and the look on her face said that while she wasn't thrilled with it she would go along with what her mate said. "Of course Jazz, if that's what you think is best."
"I do," he said. His eyes once again fell on Bella and the teen could tell he was weighing how much of a help or hindrance she would be in this situation before looking away. "We need to get the others here with us without wandering around like crazy. I think it's best if we hold up in here and let them come to us."
Bella was about to ask how he was going to get them to come before he herded them all into the classroom and turned to face the hallway. Taking a deep breath he yelled at the top of his lungs, "Me and Alice are in classroom 5-C! Rosalie, Emmet, Edward, come rendezvous with us right now!"
In the loud chaos of screaming students and the still ringing fire alarm no one would have heard him yell except the three vampires in question. It had been quick thinking. Some analytical part of Bella's mind wondered what kind of experience Jasper had that helped him keep his head in a crazy situation such as this.
Bella could feel a part inside of her wanting to panic. Wanting to scream. She knew students had to be dying. She knew it was her fault. The zombies were there for her after all. Still Bella shoved these thoughts in a corner of her mind and locked them away as tightly as she could. As Tori had told her many times losing focus in a crisis was the fastest way to get killed, right up there with panicking and acting without thinking. For now she had to keep her mind on the issue at hand. Everything… else would have to wait until later.
After what seemed like hours but was probably less than a minute later Rosalie and Emmett stormed into the classroom, both looking frazzled with clothes torn and their hands and clothes sprinkled with liberal helpings of blood and gore. It looked like they had fought at least a couple of zombies on the way to link up with them. To Bella the both of them looked bewildered and confused by the situation, though Emmett also seemed to be somewhat exhilarated and Rosalie (big surprise) also looked downright pissed.
Rosalie's eyes narrowed briefly on Bella before turning to her other two siblings. "What the hell is going on here?!" she demanded hotly. "Zombies are slaughtering students in the hallways. This is insane!"
Alice stepped forward a little and began speaking to Rosalie and Emmett. To Bella's frustration Alice once again filled them in by speaking too quickly and too low for her to make out. It really would have been very nice to know what Alice was telling her family about her. This desire to know increased tenfold when Rosalie suddenly whirled on her, her face a mask of fury that made Bella take an instinctive step back.
"This is your fault?!" she demanded, taking an aggressive step towards Bella. Alice stepped between the two of them, facing Rosalie and holding her hands up in front of her.
"It isn't like that Rose! Let me finish explaining," Alice said frantically.
"Really?" said Rosalie sarcastically, crossing her arms, "the zombies are after her and it's not her fault the students here are getting butchered like livestock? How does that logic work Alice? Tell me. I'd really like to know."
Bella flinched at her words, feeling a painful stab of guilt even as she did her best to keep her face neutral and composed. Now is not the time to freak out. Now is not the time. Still she couldn't completely keep at bay the feeling of a hole opening up in her chest. How many would have lived if I hadn't come to school today?
"You're being unreasonable Rosalie," said Alice, sounding exasperated, "it's not Bella's fault. It's Taylor's! He's the one who sent these zombies after her."
"Didn't she know there were zombies already after her?" argued Rosalie, "and who the hell is Taylor?"
"I hate to break this up ladies," said Emmett in a rush. He was sticking his head outside the classroom and looking down the hallway. "But I think that pack of zombies me and Rose left behind decided to come after us after all. We have incoming!"
At his words everyone backed up into the classroom seeming to move almost instinctively. Bella hung back with Alice standing resolutely at her side. The remaining three vampires formed a semi-circle around the door with Emmett positioned to be the first to take on whatever came through the door head on. Bella fingered the wand that was secured in the sleeve of her coat. There were a few long anxious seconds where everything seemed to stand still.
Then the first of the zombies rushed through the doorway, snarling and covered in blood. Emmett punched it in the face so hard it's head seemed to simply explode in a shower of bone and brain matter. Before the zombie's corpse had even hit the floor three others were rushing through the door.
All Bella could do was stand and watch, feeling very scared and decidedly useless as she watched the three Cullen vampires tear into the small group of zombies trying to rush through the door. Jasper and Rosalie seemed to struggle a bit needing one or two clean blows to the head of a zombie to put them down for good. However Jasper's mechanical efficiency and Rosalie's seemingly unbridled ferocity made it look like they were never in any real danger as they tore into the rotting undead. Emmett's gift came in the most handy. Once he got his hands on a zombie he ripped them apart like they were made of rotting rags. It was a brief and bloody one sided battle as the three vampires killed about ten zombies that had tried to force their way into the classroom.
This would have made Bella feel better except for one thing. More than one of the zombies had very clearly looked in her direction before they had been killed by the three vampires, a look of almost recognition coming across their pale and dead faces before they met their end. There had been a slight twinge of magic in the air that instantly made Bella suspect something.
Now that at least one of the zombies had spotted her the rest would know where she was soon enough.
The three vampires who had fought were breathing hard, more as a natural stress reaction of their previously-human bodies than any real need for air. They were now covered in bits of zombie, especially Rosalie who in her white top looked like she had walked off the set of a horror movie. Her eyes were cold but Bella could see something wild behind them as they flickered across all the dead zombies and then to everyone in the room. When her eyes met Bella's the girl couldn't help but flinch a little. While the blonde wasn't really her cup of tea Bella couldn't help but think she looked beautiful in an obscene way, splattered with gore and with an impossibly dangerous predator lurking just behind her eyes.
"We need to get out of here," said Rosalie, thankfully breaking eye contact with the teen as she looked around at her family, "there's nothing to be gained by staying."
"We can't do that," said Alice shaking her head, "I had a vision of us getting bogged down and surrounded if we tried that. We wouldn't be able to do that safely with Bella."
"Well then we'll just leave her behind," Rosalie said hotly, like she was vexed at having to state the obvious, "it's not like she's our responsibility."
Somehow it felt like a slap in the face that Rosalie didn't even glance in her direction when arguing that they should just leave her to her death. Irrationally it made Bella want to hit the blonde vampire.
"There's no way I'm leaving Bella behind," said Alice firmly, lifting her chin and showing more spine than Bella had previously credited her for. "You know she's someone very special to me Rosalie because I've told you. I'm going to do everything I can to protect her even if I have to stay here by myself."
"Whoa now, you won't be staying by yourself," said Jasper sounding mildly offended. He moved to stand closer to his wife as he faced Rosalie and Emmett. "I don't know about you two but I know my Alice and I can feel her emotions. She ain't gonna be leaving no matter what and no one is going to be able to force her. That means I ain't running too. There's no way I could leave her alone in the middle of all this."
Alice shot Jasper a look full of love and gratitude while Rosalie clenched her jaw looking conflicted. Emmett stepped forward and spoke up, looking at his wife apologetically.
"Look Rose if they're staying I think I should stay too. I'm the best one here for fighting these things. Besides Bella is the first human I've genuinely liked in a long time. I don't want to see her get torn apart by a bunch of disgusting corpses you know?" Emmett said to Rosalie, his tone apologetic but firm and resolute.
Bella was a little startled by what Emmett had just said. She was shocked that he seemed to think that highly of her when she didn't think she had done anything to deserve it. The teen tried to catch his eye to convey her gratitude but at the moment Emmett only had eyes for Rosalie.
The blonde vampire on the other hand had her arms folded and was biting her lower lip, clearly conflicted as to what she should be doing. Her eyes turned to Bella and Rosalie shot the teen such a dirty look it made Bella's throat go dry and had her fingering her wand in the sleeve of her jacket. Bella was the first to look away causing Rosalie to make a very lady-like sound of disdain.
"I guess I can't just abandon the three of you," the blonde said, though clearly she wasn't at all pleased with the situation.
Emmett shot Rosalie a grateful and proud smile which seemed to soften up the blonde a fraction seemingly against her will. When the moment between them passed Emmett's expression turned to a thoughtful and somewhat worried frown. "By the way, where the heck is Edward?"
Jasper's head suddenly snapped towards the door. "I don't think we have time for that. We have more incoming!"
Bella's magic sense wasn't great for keeping track of zombies but their presence did register weakly on her senses. Right now her senses were picking up what felt like a very large concentration of magic headed in their direction. That could only mean there were zombies coming. A lot of them. Far more than any of them had tried to take on before. Shit.
"Same positions?" asked Emmett as the three same vampires moved towards the door.
"Yeah," said Jasper sounding serious while putting up his fists.
Alice for her part grabbed Bella by the elbow and pulled the teen further away from the door. Bella didn't fight it though she wanted to. She wasn't used to not contributing in a fight. In this situation her magic would probably only get in the way of the three vampires trying to bottleneck at the door. It left a sour taste in her mouth to let others do the fighting for her especially when the zombies were after her.
The first zombie through the door was instantly killed by a jab to the face courtesy of Emmett, his colossal strength even by supernatural standards making it easy to kill zombies. More zombies began crowding through the door and from her vantage point Bella could make out dozens of the moaning creatures out in the hall trying to get in. Her senses told her there were maybe between fifty and a hundred out there. How? How could somebody get so many corpses and create so many zombies?
The Cullen vampires quickly settled into a sort of rhythm, Jasper and Rosalie tangling up any zombies attempting to come through the door while Emmett quickly destroyed their brains with his superior strength. They almost made it look easy. Pretty soon the number of dead bodies in the doorway was making it difficult for the zombies outside to force their way into the classroom making them easy pickings when they tried to crawl over the pile of corpses. For a moment Bella allowed herself to hope that this battle would be as simple as letting the vampires kill the stupid zombies one by one as they tried to get through the door.
That's when the windows all along the back of the classroom shattered and zombies began pouring inside from behind.
Bella spun as soon as she heard the noise already pouring power into the bracelet that created her bouncing shield. She placed herself between the new zombies and the vampires fighting by the doorway. When the undead that had begun pouring through the window tried to charge them Bella used an effort of will to bring up the glowing green half-dome of her bouncing shield. Three zombies ran into it getting flung back with enough force to knock over a half dozen other zombies like bowling pins.
"What the fuck was that?" Bella heard Rosalie yell. The girl ignored her too busy trying to think of her next move. It had been stupid to get trapped in a classroom with a whole back wall made up of windows. Now zombies would be able to swarm them from almost any angle. Not good.
"Get to the corner of the classroom! That way they can only come at us from so many directions at once!" Jasper barked like a man who was used to giving orders. Almost without thinking about it Bella moved to follow his lead. Raising her shield again she stepped into a group of zombies trying to get in through the broken windows, the magic multiplying the force she used and pushing them back. She wouldn't be able to keep them at bay for long though. Out of the corner of her eye Bella saw Alice enter the fight for the first time, following Bella's example by picking up a zombie easily twice her size over her head and throwing it at the crowd trying to make their way in through the window. Seeing that the other three were retreating while fighting towards a corner of the classroom Bella grabbed Alice by her shirt and began tugging her in that direction.
"Bella Bear can do magic?!" Emmett bellowed as he engaged in a vicious fighting retreat.
"I tried to tell you but I never got to finish the whole story!" Alice yelled back.
The petite vampire grabbed Bella and practically shoved her into the corner of the room causing the teen to let out a cry of surprise. When Bella turned and looked towards the fighting she saw the backs of four vampires as they stood between her and the inpouring horde of zombies. The Cullen vampires stood their ground as more than two dozen vampires charged them all at once.
"Yeah!" Emmett yelled as a battle cry as he crushed the head of one zombie and used another one as a battering ram. While Emmett was tearing into the zombies that came near him with abandon the others were having a lot more trouble. Being much stronger and faster than the zombies didn't mean it was easy for the three Cullens with regular vampire strength to kill the corpses quickly. Bella began looking frantically for any way that she could help.
It quickly became obvious that even though she was fighting furiously Alice was the least experienced fighter of the group and she quickly began to struggle against the press of bodies. Without hesitation Bella drew her wand and pointed it at a spot in between Alice and the vampires scrambling to get at her and rip her limb from limb. Drawing deep upon the well of her magic Bella shaped the power in her mind. As the power built the runes in her wand began to glow a faint neon blue.
"Maceria!" Bella cried out, the spell she had prepared in her mind unleashing and channeling through her focus.
A translucent wall about ten feet across and as high as the ceiling appeared between Alice and most of the zombies trying to get at her. The vampire quickly killed the two that were still hanging on to her before shooting Bella a quick look filled with surprise and gratefulness. The teen gave Alice a quick nod before the vampire threw herself back into the fray.
Bella's wall reduced the area which the zombies could come at them making it easier for the vampires to stand their ground and fight against the oncoming horde. However casting magic with her wand was exhausting and the wall she put up on the fly wouldn't last very long. As she watched the back of the vampires as they fought Bella cursed that her talents lay in barriers and protection magics as opposed to something that could help kill the seemingly endless masses of zombies. For the time being Bella couldn't think of anything else she could do to help.
As Bella watched she saw Emmett start to get too cocky. He was the only one killing zombies with ease left and right so with a fangs bared and a grin on his face he began to wade deeper into the mass of zombies and away from the defensive line formed by his siblings.
"Emmett don't leave the line!" Jasper yelled but Emmett either didn't hear him or chose to ignore him.
He was soon almost in the middle of the room by himself with zombies jumping on him from every angle. However Emmett's strength was too great for the corpses to bring down. The tallest Cullen laughed and seemed lost in a haze of battle-lust and blood rage as he tore into the pack of zombies over and over again. For almost a minute Emmett seemed invincible standing in the middle of the seemingly never ending horde of zombies. However it was almost inevitable that something bad would happen.
Either by design or more likely by luck one of the zombies lunged and tried to grab Emmett's head while the vampire was distracted killing other undead. The zombie missed his head but instead dug one of its long and broken yellow nails into Emmett's eye. The vampire bellowed and roared like a lion, one hand instinctively going to his face to protect his now ruined eyeball.
"Emmett!" Rosalie screamed in anger and fear for her mate.
While the big vampire was distracted the zombies seemed to instinctively sense an opportunity. A number of them threw themselves at Emmett riding him to the ground in his distracted state. The rest swarmed Alice, Jasper and Rosalie with renewed intensity sensing that their prize was near. Without Emmett there to quickly kill the zombies the other three Cullens almost immediately began to struggle and be pushed back.
What should I do? What can I do? Bella thought furiously. Emmett was currently busy under a pile of zombies and to Bella's eye it was only a matter of moments before the other three were overwhelmed in a press of bodies. The problem was that they simply couldn't kill the zombies fast or efficiently enough. Was there something she could do to help with that? To help turn back the tide?
At that moment the witch caught a flash of something red through the slavering mass of zombies. Bella's breathing stopped. Could it be her? Could she really be here?
"Victoria!" Bella yelled at the top of her lungs into the crowd of zombies.
One second Bella could see nothing and the next there she was dressed in the same black clothes she had left home in that morning. Victoria jumped straight into the mass of zombies that were pinning down Emmett and Bella saw that the redhead had a large machete in her hand. She began to twirl it with blinding speed, hacking off limbs or cutting into the heads of any zombies that came too near. In seconds there was a small clearing of space around her and she took the opportunity to kill two of the zombies that were still on top of Emmett with two quick swipes of her blade. Not one to miss an opening Emmett roared in a deep baritone voice and flung three more zombies off himself, surging to his feet and quickly tearing a zombie's head right off.
Bella watched as Victoria pulled a kukri knife from her belt and threw both it and the bloody machete in her hand underhanded high up in the air towards the Cullen vampires. As smoothly as if it had been choreographed Jasper snatched the machete out of the air and Rosalie grabbed hold of the kukri knife. Without even slowing down the two started tearing into the zombies, the heavy bladed weapons suddenly giving them the tools they needed to dismember and kill the zombies in one or two swipes.
Victoria for her part pulled out another machete that had been strapped to her hip and with a roar of her own began cutting apart the zombies with wild abandon. Alice realized that she would now just get in the way of Rosalie's and Jasper's blades so she backed up and stood protectively in front of Bella. Sensing the turn in the tide Bella risked exhaustion raised the wand in her hand one more time.
"Maceria!"
Bella created another translucent wall that forced the zombies to funnel into a more awkward and narrow corridor. The teen sagged from the exhaustion and Alice was quick to be there to help her stay on her feet, her eyes briefly looking at her friend with concern. Bella gave her the best reassuring smile she could under the circumstances before the two of them went back to watching the battle unfold.
With the addition of Victoria and with Jasper and Rosalie suddenly armed the confrontation turned form a battle to a massacre. The three vampires with blades severed arms or heads with every swing while Emmett viciously tore apart any zombie he could get his hands on. The smell of old blood was almost choking and the gore shocking. Towards the end it seemed like the whole classroom was knee deep in corpses. It looked like a slaughterhouse and was by far the most gruesome sight the teen had ever seen.
Slowly the number of zombies rushing in to kill them began to thin out. After a subjective eternity Rosalie killed the last zombie by cleaving its head in half with the heavy blade of the kukri knife. Bella looked at all the vampires in the room and took in the scene. All of them that Bella could see had completely black eyes and were breathing hard with their fangs bared. The vampires all looked at each other warily as if part of them was trying to decide if the battle was truly over or if there would be more people they had to fight.
Bella bit her lip nervously praying to the stars the vampires weren't about to start fighting each other. Thankfully it seemed like someone out there was listening as Emmett was the first one to close his eyes (both his good one and his ruined one) and made visible effort to reign in the vampire instincts the bloody battle had brought to the surface. That seemed to be a trigger and suddenly all the vampires that were on edge seemed to relax a fraction. They weren't completely calm yet but the air of imminent violence thankfully dissipated almost completely.
Rosalie was the first to speak.
"Where the fuck is Edward?"
00
To his chagrin Edward had somehow lost the car he had been following. He couldn't explain it. He's cut across a backyard to cut the distance between him and the Cadillac when it had just disappeared. Thankfully he'd gotten close enough to the car and knew that it was burning oil, badly. It wasn't especially hard to follow the scent just a lot more time consuming than he would have liked.
He'd finally tracked the car down to a huge two story house on the outskirts of town that nobody had lived in for at least a few years. The Cadillac was parked out front and the very recent smell of two humans led right to the front door. Edward smirked. They may have used some trickery to lose him for a short while but that wouldn't save them. He would end the threat to is mate once and for all and then the two of them could be together. Just as they were meant to be.
As he made his way brazenly to the front door Edward was already contemplating his next move when it came to Marie… or Bella. He really did need to settle on a name for her. Marie suited her much better in his opinion. He would need to make sure that was the name she decided to call herself.
When he reached the front door and reached for the knob he hesitated. It was odd that he couldn't hear any thoughts or even any heartbeats from inside the house. It made him a little wary. More foul sorceries afoot? Caution told Edward to hold off until he had more information but he was impatient and wanted to end this threat quickly so he could become the hero in Marie's eyes. Swallowing back any reservations Edward turned the doorknob.
The door was unlocked. Carefully he entered keeping his senses alert for where the people he was searching for might be. The smell indicted they had entered the house but he couldn't hear them at all. Perhaps they had left out the back door after they first came in?
Edward walked straight into the house determined to find answers. He had barely made it five steps into the large home when a circle of sickly greenish-black light suddenly erupted in all around him. To his shock and alarm Edward found that he was suddenly unable to move a muscle. He struggled but his body refused to react. The sound of slow clapping came from further in the house and Edward heard footsteps approaching in his direction. Suddenly two figures stepped into view.
One was a man in his mid-forties and the other was an exotic woman in her early twenties with eyes of two different colors. The woman had a flat neutral expression on her face while the man was grinning like Christmas had come early.
"Bravo Mr. Cullen, bravo," said the man with a smile Edward didn't like, "you may have compromised our little stakeout at the school but it seems that in return you have given us a valuable hostage. I'm sure your family will be quite eager to give us Isabella Black in order to ensure you return to them in one piece. Then again maybe my zombies already killed her at the school so you get to be our insurance policy. Doesn't it feel good to be useful Mr. Cullen?"
Edward tried to speak but found that he couldn't. His every muscle was locked up tight and frozen. As much as he tried he couldn't even will his fingers to twitch. Now the vampire was getting worried. Whatever the green circle they had trapped him in was it was doing a damn good job of keeping him immobilized and helpless.
The man began to step around him out of his line of sight and the woman reached into a pouch on her side pulling out a short intricately carved stick with what looked like eagle feathers tied at the top.
"Relax Mr. Cullen as long as everyone cooperates you will not be permanently harmed. In the meantime," the man said with a slick and oily voice, "we'll be sure to put you to good use."
00
AN: I know I know everyone was hoping for emotional fluff. That will come soon I promise. However I do hope there is an audience out there that enjoys this type of chapter. I simply don't have it in me to write a strictly romance story. It gets boring and all the best stories need to have a mix of romance, action and drama in my humble little opinion. Until next time.