Hello everybody! Here's a new chapter to this story that I seem to be on a speed update for right now. What can I say? I'm pretty much on a writing high right now in regards to this story. I don't know why, but I'm all of a sudden into the whole zombie-survival mode right now. I guess that's because of the Resident Evil 6 game coming out in October, but I think the real reason is because I've been watching playthroughs of the Walking Dead game on youtube. Combine that with the fact that I only discovered the Young Avengers at the same time and you got this crazy story idea. Oh well, I'm glad it happened like this or this story would have never been born.

However, the Young Avengers part is about to be rectified! You see, I have a PSP along with access to the PSN store. I've noticed that there was a comic section on there and looked at it in curiosity. To my pleasant surprise, the entire twelve issues of the Young Avengers is available. Yay! Now I can read them and finally have a more concrete idea on the characters' actual personas! Hopefully, I'll be able to integrate that into this story if it's not already too late. But yay me! I can now read the series!

But yeah, that's enough of my crazy rants that I'm sure none of you even bother reading half the time unless I probably put it in bold and labeled it as important. I'm going to keep this somewhat short since it's like right now 1:30 in the morning where I am. By the time I finish the outtakes section and post this on the story, it'd probably be a quarter until two. But I'm so stoked about this story that I'll lose sleep over it.

However, that's most likely not going to be happening very often from here on in. As of today, I will be starting college for this quarter. As such, I'll be concentrating on my work and stuff and less on this. Don't worry; this will continue to be worked on while I concentrate on school. It's just that I'll have to significantly slow down with these updates. And yes, I can afford sleeping late today since my class doesn't start until like one in the afternoon tomorrow.

Anyway, please don't forget to leave a review before you move onto the next story that you want to read. I've noticed that like over a hundred people have already read my story, and not one has left a review. What, is my writing really that terrible that you cringe at the thought of leaving a review? That makes me sad. :( But all kidding aside, please leave a review telling me how you like this idea. It really does help keep my morale up for this story in seeing how interested you people are for this. Until the next update to this or any of my other stories everybody!

Chapter 3: A Moment's Reprieve Gone Wrong

As Billy was being dragged by Teddy across the quad to the cafeteria doors, he decided to take a quick look at the area to see how things were going. Not to his surprise, things were beyond hectic and only getting worse by the second. Students and teachers alike were running in all directions trying to get away from the zombies that were now quickly flooding the area. Some ran into nearby classrooms and shut the doors behind them while inadvertently locking people out; others followed the two's lead and headed towards the cafeteria. Overall, it looked and felt like a war had reached their school and they were running for their lives to avoid being in the line of fire. The only difference here was that there was no friendly army around to oppose the enemy. They were left to fend for themselves.

By the time the teens had reached the doors, two students were in the process of shutting them closed. Knowing what they were planning, the blond teen hastened his speed in order to beat the closing of the doors. In the process, Billy nearly tripped at the sudden acceleration and would have fallen flat on his face were it not for the firm hand gripping his wrist keeping him upright. Thankfully for them, the cafeteria doors happened to be rather large and heavy and thus took a bit of time to close. Just as they were about to be shut out, the two managed to squeeze into the barely passable gap before the doors officially closed behind them.

Now granted momentary reprieve from the chaotic situation outside, Billy felt his arm become free from the death grip of Teddy's hand. He then took a seat on a nearby cafeteria bench in an attempt to catch his breath from both the speed dash and the hectic situation that had him running in hyper adrenaline mode for the past five minutes. He also noticed some other students leaning against the walls either catching their breaths or crying over the hell they have just witnessed. It was clear that they were all gravely affected by this; even a couple of people who he recognized to have bullied him on a constant basis were reduced to bawling messes as they curled up in their secluded corners.

Teddy, however, had other things on his mind apart from relaxing if his face were not any indication of it. With both shock and anger reflecting from his eyes, he was quickly right in the guy's face who only looked back with an unreadable expression.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Teddy exclaimed angrily as he turned as he noticed the other student, a girl, frantically looking around for something. The guy faltered a bit at the tone and harsh gaze but stood his ground; the girl soon took a nearby mop from a janitor's cart and jammed it into the door handles. "There are still people out there trying to look for a place to hide. Open up those doors and let them in!"

"You got a death wish or something, Teddy?" the male student exclaimed as he looked at the blond as if he had gone crazy. "I'm not sure if you noticed, but those zombie guys were practically right at you and your friend's tails when you barely squeezed in here! I wouldn't be surprised if they're at the door now. Do you know how many people you'd be putting in danger if you opened them up? I know you're a nice guy and all that, but I'm not going to listen to your shouts at me to open this door just so you could save a couple more stragglers. It might end up being the last and stupidest decision you ever made in your life!"

"Still, you could've afforded to leave it open for a few more seconds!" the blond countered angrily as the sound of frantic cries and pounding at the door reached his ears. The girl screamed at this, but none of the others paid any heed to her. "There was still a bit of time left before the zombies got here. If Billy and I had arrived even a second later than we did, would you still leave us out there to die? I know you see me as your greatest friend on the baseball field, Greg. You always say that you'll have my back no matter what. Would you go back on your word and leave me out there if it had happened?"

"…I'm sorry, but it's me and my girlfriend's life before yours," the male student called Greg responded after a moment of pause and flinching momentarily as a blood curdling scream was heard from behind the doors. "And besides, there are other people here who had arrived way before you two. I'm not going to risk all their lives just to save one more life who just happened to be a second too late entering this cafeteria!"

"…You're an asshole, you know that?" Teddy growled out angrily as he gave a look of disgust at his baseball teammate before turning his back on him. The other simply rolled his eyes at the comment as if it were unfounded. He then added in warning as he took a seat next to Billy, "If you keep on caring about nothing but making sure your own ass is safe, then you're not going to last long in any situation. You better start learning how to think what's best for others, not just for yourself."

"Well, at least I'm making the most sensible choice here!" Greg countered rather weakly as he took the girl's hand and walked further into the cafeteria where most of the other students had gathered. At the same time, he ignored the continued screams of anguish coming from outside along with the desperate pounding at the jammed door. "And what gave you the impression that I'm only thinking about keeping my own ass safe? I got my own girl here to take care of! I could care less about anyone else right now!"

With that slightly vehement exclamation leaving his mouth, Greg and his presumed girlfriend disappeared into the crowd of students that were gathered further into the cafeteria. Teddy simply gave out a long and disappointed sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose as if trying to stave off an oncoming headache. It was clear he did not like the choice of words and decision his baseball teammate had just made, but there was not anything he could do about it now. All he could do now was just listen to the pitiful cries for help coming from the other side of the door and be forced to refuse their simple request.

Billy, on the other hand, merely stared at the blond after having calmed down somewhat from his panicked high and trying his best to ignore the frightening and demoralizing screams. As much as he had wanted to add something to the now dead argument, he had felt it best to keep his mouth shut in case all he did was add more fuel to the tense situation. That and because his brain was busy recovering from the hyper adrenaline high that resulted from this, he was not in much of a position to argue about anything much less supply his own opinion on this. He was just, for lack of a better phrase, brain dead at that particular moment.

"…Do you think we should try opening the door just in case that guy was wrong?" the raven haired teen quietly suggested after about a minute of silence. His words sounded softer than he had intended it to be as it seemed like he was losing his voice. "There might be some time left to squeeze some others in."

"No, we spent too much time arguing," the blond responded as he looked at the doorway and noticed a small river of blood flowing from underneath it. "The zombies are already on the other side of the door. Damn it; I should've just ignored him and opened those doors! I know we had more time when he closed those doors. It's because of that we have some people dying out there who shouldn't be!"

"I-It's not your fault, Teddy!" the other said in a comforting tone as he placed his arm over the other's shoulders. His mind barely registered that the blond had, like him, managed to put on his backpack before realizing the full extent of the panic. "You were just trying to convince him that you were right before doing anything. And besides, I'm sure he would've done anything to stop you the moment you put your hands on the door handles. That door would've most likely stayed closed no matter what you did."

"…I guess you got a point there, Billy. Greg may not look it, but he can hold his own pretty well in a fist fight. I've seen him do it with an opposing team's player before. I don't care how much of an ass I think him to be, I'm not going to fight him even if he ended punching me to get me to stop. And as much as I hate saying it, he's probably right about this like he usually is about most other things."

"So what if he happened to be right on this occasion? Does he ever listen or even try out other people's suggestions if they happen to go against his plans? I never met Greg before, but I got a feeling from hearing him talk that he's kind of stubborn to entertain any idea unless he's the one to come up with it. How can you say he's right when he refuses to even consider another potentially correct answer?"

"Heh, I can just imagine the look on his face if he ever heard you say that about him," Teddy said with an amused huff of his breath when he heard what Billy said. "You pegged him down pretty well for only having just seen him a few seconds ago. He's pretty stubborn to the point of believing that his way of doing things is the only right way. The only people he would ever remotely bend down to are his parents and the baseball coach. I guess because of that it's really hard to say whether or not he's right about anything."

For the next couple of minutes, the two teens quietly sat next to each other as their ears continued to be assaulted by the many screams from outside. They had since run out of things to say on the subject of Greg and the recent altercation. Instead, they were left to their thoughts as to what was going on at their school. Never in their wildest dreams did they believe that they would ever find themselves in a situation that could only be described as hell. Never did they think that they would see a zombie roaming around and eating at every unfortunate person it managed to get its hands on. It was just a mind-blowing experience that no doubt either of them would fully recover from anytime soon.

After about a couple minutes had passed, all the screaming and shrieks of pain that were emanating from the quad had subsided. All that could be heard now were the screams of people from the other portions of the school along with the occasional shuffling sound of shoes behind the door. As a result, the air around the teens now held a sort of creepy and foreboding silence that seemed to threaten them with death should they listen to it too long. It was probably enough to even crack the most emotionally hardened of people into a slightly skittish person if not a potential nervous wreck.

"Teddy," Billy finally spoke up in a clearer voice this time, the silence now getting the better of him. "Why don't we go deeper into the cafeteria where everybody else is at? I don't really feel comfortable sitting so close to the door with zombies on the other side. That and this silence is starting to creep me out."

"That sounds like the best idea I've heard all day," Teddy responded in a slightly happy tone as he tried to lighten the overall dreadful mood. It seemed to somewhat work as the raven haired teen flashed him a small smile before getting to his feet. The blond quickly followed suit before adding, "And how about we go looking for that way out through the kitchen while we're at it? You never know when we might need to leave this place quickly."

Upon hearing this request, the raven haired teen motioned for the other to take the lead. Despite having been in this high school for a little over a year, Billy had yet to set foot into the cafeteria except for assemblies and whatnot. That was because he preferred to avoid crowds of people so as to avoid any kind of incident between him and bullies. As such, he was not well versed with the interior layout of the building like Teddy was since this was his karate club's official place of meeting.

Yes, the actual room where students eat was a pretty basic area to remember, but it was the connecting rooms and hallways that the raven haired teen was not familiar with. Some of the hallways led to more classrooms while some of the rooms led to offices of school officials and club rooms like that of Teddy's club. Overall, Billy never once had a reason to go through the cafeteria to get to a class nor did he ever have to visit a school official, so the overall layout of the place was a mystery to him.

Thankfully for him, Teddy was not planning on giving him the grand tour anytime soon. All he did was lead them towards the medium-sized crowd in the middle of the cafeteria where students were talking amongst themselves in a panicked fashion. All were confused as to what was going on; some settled at just crying their eyes out from no doubt the shock at having seen their friends and fellow classmates killed before their eyes. Overall, the core mood hanging in the air was that of both sadness and uneasiness.

However, Teddy guided Billy around the perimeter of the crowd rather than trying to navigate through it. In fact, he had made straight for a door that was to the direct left of the crowd and generally unobstructed by the students. While not labeled in any form, the raven haired teen had a feeling that this was the door that would lead them to the kitchen and ultimately their only way out should they ever use it.

"Hey, Billy-boy!" Billy suddenly heard someone exclaim from the crowd. Both teens stopped in their tracks and turned to see a rather husky teen male walking towards them with a sneer on his face. "I see that the shrimp of the school managed to survive this zombie madness. I guess all that running and ducking has done you good."

"Wh-What do you want?" Billy asked out of reflex as he recognized this person as one of the bullies that tormented him. The strange thing about it was that despite the many times he had been pushed, punched, and demoralized by this bully, he never once had the opportunity to figure out his name. "Is this really the time for this?"

"Now's the perfect time to be dishing out some hell for you," the bully replied in a sinister tone, failing to notice that Teddy had since stepped a few inches ahead of Billy and posing as a defensive wall. "I literally just lost one of my best mates out there, and I think I'll take out my frustrations on you."

"How about you try doing something else for a change?" Teddy quickly spoke up as he gave off a threatening glare that the bully seemed to merely brush off. "Just because one of your friends was unfortunate enough to be taken down in the chaos out there doesn't give you the right to start threatening others. Bullying others should be the last thing on your mind right now, especially when you have all this craziness happening around you!"

"Apparently, you don't know how my mind works, Mr. Hot-Shot Baseball Star. I have a bit of…trouble venting out my feelings, and I find that crying and all those other girly stuff to be weak. So why not revel in the suffering of others when I know that I'm the one to give them that?" the bully added as he stepped threateningly close to Teddy's face. "And don't think I won't hesitate to give you the same treatment. Don't think you're so tough just because you're in the karate club and that you can protect that son of a bitch behind you…"

In a flash, Teddy delivered a right straight punch to the guy's nose followed up with a left hook and finished up forward-step left elbow to the gut. Caught completely off guard, all the bully could do was take the hits and fall flat on his back when delivered the devastating blow to his stomach. Most of the students who happened to have been nearby saw this and quickly moved away from the one-sided fight; some even headed closer to the scene most likely as a way to distract their preoccupied minds.

"Don't you EVER talk about Billy like that again!" Teddy exclaimed as he quickly stood up straight from his fighting stance. The other person tried to get to his feet but was reeling from the pain he had just been dealt with as blood started to pour out of his injured if not broken nose. "You're lucky I haven't punched you out before this since you were too chicken to even let him know your name. He's never done anything to you, so don't let me catch you even laying a finger on him again! You got that?!" he shouted the last part while shaking his fist threateningly for good measure.

"T-Teddy…!" Billy all but whispered out in shock as he watched the scene unfolding from behind the blond. He had never seen his best friend so heated up or even acting so protective before. While he was appreciative that he was being defended from another bout of bullying, he felt somewhat uneasy that he actually resorted to punching before it was even warranted. Then again, the tension in the air could have proved too much for him and forced him to act on instinct.

"Grr, as if you could protect him forever!" the bully growled out vehemently, clearly having been embarrassed in front of everybody and not liking it. However, he could only wallow in his embarrassment while on the floor since he was still in too much pain. "You just wait until I get the rest of my group together, Altman. We'll jump you so hard when you least expect it; you'll still be thinking that it's the 21st century when you wake up!"

"I doubt your 'entourage' can pull off something like that," the blond scoffed as the other finally managed to get to his feet albeit unsteadily and not bothering to even try to stop his nose from bleeding. "There's a difference between your wild punches and my ingrained martial arts strikes; I can better expect the unexpected. And that accounts for if and when you choose to surprise-attack me!"

"Ha, talk big all you want, you wanna-be baseball jock! You ain't nothing but a bunch of hot air thinking he's all that. We'll see soon enough who's going to get their mind blown out once this whole zombie business blows over!"

Before either of them could add more fuel to their already heated argument, a sudden shrill scream from somewhere in the cafeteria reached their ears! On instinct, everybody in the room turned their heads towards the area where the stage was at and saw a girl desperately trying to fight a guy who was on top of another girl.

"Someone, help me!" the girl shouted as she continued to try and free the struggling girl. "James just suddenly started acting like a zombie and is eating Jennie! Someone please help me get him off of her!"

Before she could further her pleas for help, the person she called James brought a hand to the girl's wrist and tugged her down. Not expecting this, she immediately fell right beside him with a shriek which then turned into cries of agony that no doubt everybody there was familiar with. It was the same shriek they heard from people being bitten when they were running away from it all! Now it looked like their efforts were in vain.

"Oh my god!!!" one of the guys shouted as everybody started to run around in a panic at the revelation of being in the same room with a zombie. "Zombies are in here! Zombies are outside! We're trapped! We're doomed!"

"God damn it…!" the bully growled out as he clutched his aching stomach and stared hard at the scene unfolding before him. A bruise was now starting to show itself along his left cheek and his nose from the two punches earlier. He then turned his attention to Teddy before saying, "Don't think for a moment this is over, Altman. Once we survive this mess, me and my gang are going to let you have it!"

"You're honestly going to say that with all this going on?!" Teddy exclaimed in shock as the bully quickly retreated back into the crowd for a reason known only to him. He then said with a sigh, "I guess some people would do anything to keep some sense of normalcy in their lives when faced with chaos. Anyway," he quickly changed the subject as he turned around to face Billy, "I think we better make our way out of here. It's not safe in here anymore now that we have a zombie with us."

All Billy could supply as an answer was a nod of his head. He was still shocked at the display of protectiveness that the blond had just shown. He knew that Teddy always got angry whenever he had shown signs of being bullied. Not once had he ever seen him actually go so far as to punch out someone just to keep them away. Despite the hectic situation unfolding all around him, he was happy to see that his best friend would put him first before anything else even if it meant trouble later on down the line.

"Come on; snap out of it, Billy!" the blond responded as he lightly shook the raven haired teen's shoulders. This seemed to work as he now shook his head of any dazedness that was left. "We have to go now before things get even more hectic in here."

"B-But what about everybody else?" Billy asked as he finally took a good look around him and saw many students now entering the connecting corridors and rooms in an attempt to escape the cafeteria. He even saw the three on the stage who caused the commotion now zombies and trying to eat whoever was in their reach. It was then that the full gravity of the current situation dawned on him. "We can't just leave them like this! They could end up getting trapped or killed if they don't get out with us. Shouldn't we tell them that there's a way out through the kitchen?"

"I highly doubt anybody's going to listen to us now that they're like this. Their brains are now running on panic mode with the sole objective to get as far away from here as possible no matter where they go. I barely got you to snap out of it after rescuing you from the zombie attack back in the quad! Now come on; we've got to stop wasting time!"

Without saying another word, Teddy once again grabbed Billy by the wrist and led him to the door that led to the kitchen. With his free hand, he quickly jerked the door open and pushed the other in first before entering himself. They then proceeded to look for the loading area that would serve as their way out from this zombie-infested school. Hopefully, they would not run into any zombies in the kitchen area; but what with how their luck has been since this all started, they would not put it past them to not be a possibility. All they could do now was stay on their toes and try not to get caught off-guard.

Yep, they're not even safe in the cafeteria. So much for trying to wait the whole thing out. I wonder what made good old James turn into a zombie? Well, I'm sure you all know if you're familiar with any kind of zombie movie.

Anyway, I had decided to put a bit of a bullying scene in this story for a couple of reasons. The first one is so I could show you how bad the bullying situation was for Billy even if it was only from one bully in this scene. The second reason was because since the action was already high-strung from the previous chapter, I felt that to just let it suddenly go back down to somewhat relax would kind of make it into a bumpy story in terms of the flow. Hope it ended up working the way I intended it to work.

But yeah, I'm going to shut up now since it's already 1:40. Like I said at the top, I'll be done by a quarter until 2 here. Please don't forget to leave a review before you move onto the next story that you want to read. They are always very helpful and greatly appreciated. So now I'll leave you with a couple of outtakes. I expect most if not all of them to be serious this time. Of course, I could be badly wrong on that.

And just to say, I kind of see the outtakes as what not to do or if things end up being botched up. It's kind of like the thing with the Walking Dead where your decisions dictate the flow of the game and ultimately whether you live or die. Although I will admit that they are sometimes just complete jokes on an otherwise serious situation. Until the next update to this or any of my other stories everybody!

Outtakes:

Teddy: Don't you dare close that door! There are still people out there!

Greg: Do you have a death wish or something, pal?!

Female student: I found a mop! I'm going to jam the door with it.

Teddy: Oh, no you don't! (Grabs mop and throws it aside before heading towards door)

Greg: DON'T OPEN IT!!!!!

(Doors fly open and both students and zombies start flooding the cafeteria. The chaos at the doors proves too much and Teddy is taken by surprise by a zombie)

Billy: Teddy!!! (Can only look on in shock as he sees Teddy being eaten)

/

Bully: Hey, Billy-boy! (Cracks knuckles threateningly) Didn't think I'd see you here.

Billy: Wh-What do you want? (Looking fearful)

Bully: Oh, just want to make my day somewhat normal and punch your lights out.

(Teddy merely watches with little interest as Bully lunges at Billy)

Billy: Ahh!!! Stop! (Proceeds to get pummeled despite efforts to fight Bully off) Teddy, help!

Teddy: Sorry, you're on your own here. (Shrugs while walking away) I already saved you once out in the quad. Handle yourself this time!

Billy: TEDDY!!!!! (Continues to be pummeled)

/

Female student: Someone help! James is a zombie!

Students: AHHH!!! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!

Teddy: We better get out of here, Billy!

Billy: AAHHH!!! (Runs around in panic) WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!

Teddy: (Facepalms) Oh, you got to be kidding me...