Hello everybody! Here's a new chapter to this story that I know I said was going to be slowed down somewhat on the last chapter. Well, this first week of college classes was very laid back and easy. Understandable since it was the first day and really just a chance to go over class policy and the professor's syllabi. And yes, syllabi is an actual word and the plural form of syllabus.
But yeah, that's the reason why this new chapter is being posted rather quickly. However, I do have to say that the fact that I'm still on a writing high for this particular story played a big role in this coming out pretty fast. Being that the weekend is coming up and that I don't have any assigned classes on Fridays, I'm sure that you'll see some speedy updates during these weekends.
Of course, there is always a big chance that these days would also see slow-downs on the updates. After all, I have to now allot my time correctly so that I do not fall behind in my classes. I don't want to fall behind in my work just because I was busy writing these fictional stories that, to my sad admission, can wait until I'm done with my school work. Oh well, what can you do when important matters call out to you?
Anyway, that's enough of my rant here. Please don't forget to leave a review before you move onto the next story that you want to read. I know I pretty much say this with every chapter update that I post on this site. It's pretty much a force of habit more than anything. However, I do admit I want some reviews when posting a relatively new story like this. It's like the only way I can tell how well this story is being received by you readers so I know whether or not what I'm writing here is worth my spare time or not. I'm sure, though, that what I write here is not a waste of time to any of you or me.
So, until the next update to this or any of my other stories everybody!
Chapter 4: Dangerous Kitchen Hijinks
As Teddy was busy dragging Billy around the kitchen in an attempt to look for the loading area that would ultimately be their way out of this zombie-infested school, they barely took heed of a couple of students who happened to barge in. Apparently, they had just gone into the nearest door that was nearest them in hopes of getting away from the chaotic scene that was the single zombie panic inside the cafeteria. It would not be much of a surprise if things ended up even worse and they started to also get flooded in the kitchen.
Never in any of the students' wildest dreams did they think they would be taking part in such a frightening experience; they did not even figure that trouble would somehow follow them into their supposed avenue of safety. And to think that they were just going through their day as normal students and then suddenly be thrust into something that has come out of a survival-horror movie. If this was not what the average teenager would consider being the epitome of insanity, then many would say they have a lot of loose screws.
With all these chaotic thoughts running through both the heads of students and teachers alike, it was no wonder that the two students who all but burst into the kitchen failed to pay any attention to the two teens that were there first. It would also account for their reasoning as to not wanting to hang around too long and settling on trying to escape through the next door that they could find. Unfortunately for them, it happened to be locked from the other side and forced them to frantically search for another avenue of escape.
Being that Billy pretty much had nothing to do while being dragged around by Teddy in search for the loading area, he settled on watching these two students running around in an admittedly comedic fashion. Were they not in such troubling circumstances, he would have laughed upon seeing this ridiculous sight. He almost did give out a small chuckle, however, when he saw the students finally find an open door and jammed into it. Even from his somewhat poor vantage point, he noticed that it was just a utility closet cluttered full of kitchen and janitorial equipment that it barely held enough space for them to hide in.
"Yeesh, I didn't think people would be that panicked," Teddy said in an undertone as he caught a glimpse of the closet hiding space from the corner of his eye. "They better snap out of it and start thinking things through more clearly. They're going to end up getting themselves trapped if zombies overrun this kitchen!"
"Uh, Teddy?" Billy asked as he refocused his attention to his best friend. "Do you think you could let go of my arm? I doubt dragging me around the whole kitchen with you is going to help us find the loading area any faster. Why don't you let me help out by at least looking for something we can defend ourselves with?"
"Oh, s-sorry about that!" the blond apologized with an easily concealed stutter as he quickly released his grip on the teen's wrist. Oddly enough, his cheeks gained ever the lightest dustings of pink as if he were trying to hold back a blush that the raven haired teen barely managed to notice. "Yeah, why don't you go and see if you can find anything to fight back against the zombies? I doubt running is going to do us much good when we end up becoming exhausted at the worst of times."
"As if we'd even be able to fight back when we're tired," the other replied with a light scoff as he chose to ignore the supposed blush and began wandering around the kitchen while leaving the other to search for the way out. "I'm pretty sure that adrenaline would keep us going for a bit, but that can only last so long when we're exhausted."
"Hey, at least it's better than going down without putting up a fight. Now hurry up and find something we can use to defend ourselves with! Once I've found the way out, I'm getting us out of here whether you're ready or not."
Deciding not to say anything about Teddy's threats of ill-prepared escape, Billy went to explore the kitchen on his own in hopes of finding a passable weapon. Despite being a kitchen, he had a hard time looking for what he initially thought would be in abundance, a knife or some other kind of sharp instrument. Then again, he kind of half-expected that to be the case seeing as how their school was not on some kind of healthy lunch program where the kitchen staff would actually prepare some of the lunches. He did soon find a paring knife next to a box of fruit, but that was not going to do much good being that it was too small. Still, he took it with him in case by some miracle it would prove useful.
After spending about half-a-minute trying in search of a more suitable blade, the raven haired teen gave up and decided to look for an alternative weapon. Soon enough, he found a mop next to a bucket of soapy water and a janitor's brush that was really nothing more than a long wooden stick since the brush portion sat broken on a nearby table. Figuring it was the best he could do considering how tight on time they were, the teen quickly picked them both up with his free hand. As he made his way back towards his best friend's position, he purposefully walked past the locked utility closet so as to hear what was going on with the two students inside.
"Don't you worry, sweetheart," Billy heard a strangely familiar male voice say in a reassuring tone as a cluttering sound was heard. "Things are going to be okay so long as we wait it out in here. You can rely on me!"
"Don't you give me that 'sweetheart' crap, you insensitive creep!" a female voice angrily chirped in followed closely with a slap. "You just dragged me away with you while I was trying to leave the cafeteria!"
"Hey, cut me some slack here! I thought you were my girlfriend. I didn't know that she had already ran off when I grabbed you."
Billy failed to hear any more of the ensuing argument as he was now out of earshot and settled on giving out a small chuckle at the exchange. Instead, he continued at a faster pace towards Teddy who he saw was now standing in front of a door and carefully examining it.
"Hey Teddy; think these would serve well for fending off zombies?" the raven haired teen asked as he showed off what he had found. "They weren't exactly what I had in mind, but they should be better than nothing."
"…A mop and a big wooden stick," Teddy deadpanned as he looked at the items with a raised eyebrow. "That's the best you can find in here? Boy, this has got to be the safest kitchen I've ever heard of."
"No need to tell me twice about that. I've scanned wherever I could but couldn't find anything that could do any major damage to the zombies. I did find this paring knife, though," the raven haired teen added as he carefully showed the knife off. "However, I really don't think that this can be used unless we had a death wish."
For a moment, the blond seemed to be stuck in thought as he shifted his gaze from the knife to the door and back again. Wanting to know what he had found, Billy looked at the door and noticed that it was made of metal apart from the usual wooden doors of the school. This meant that whatever was beyond it must be important for the school to put special attention to this. He also took note of a latch on the door that was kept locked with a padlock which only helped to confirm his suspicions.
"Are you saying that's our safe way out of here?" Billy asked. "If so, then what a load of good it did us to come in here! We need a key to open the padlock. Unless you know something I don't, I doubt you have one on you."
"…There's another way to open this thing without having to use a key," the blond simply replied in answer that only confused the other as he furthered examined the latch. "If we can't unlock the padlock itself, then we'll do the next best thing. We'll just disassemble the latch it's locked in place. It looks like this door opens towards us, so we just need to take the screws off of the doorframe and we'll be out of here."
"And how are you planning to pull off something like that?" the raven haired teen asked as he figured the screws were not going anywhere without a fight. "The tools needed to unscrew that thing is probably in the supply closet. I doubt the two people hiding in there are going to open it up for us anytime soon."
"I figured as much on that. Therefore, the next best thing we can do is find something that can double up as a screwdriver. It'd have to be both durable and thin in order to withstand and perform the screwdriver action. Thankfully, I think you just found the very thing we're going to need."
"You talking about this paring knife? Do you really think you can get rid of the screws with this? I mean, it does fit what you're looking for. But what if you end up accidentally slicing your hand or something?"
Instead of providing an answer, Teddy simply carefully took the knife out of Billy's hands and immediately went to work on the screws. Before he could even twist his wrist for a turn, however, a door was heard being slammed open. Startled, they both turned their attention to the door they had first entered through and saw a female student on the floor with zombies slowly walking towards her.
"HELP!!!!!" she screamed as one of the zombies fell on top of her, mouth open and quickly digging itself into her shoulder. With a blood-curdling scream, she began hitting the monster to no avail as more continued to flood the kitchen area.
"…We're running out of time here!" Teddy murmured under his breath as he used this scare to spur him on into working faster. "Make sure they don't get over here, Billy! Use the mop or that big stick if you have to."
Whether or not Billy heard what was said remained to be seen. For now, he was both shocked and scared at what was happening in front of him; the screams reaching his ears until they died down and were replaced with the sounds of ripping flesh. No doubt this was going to leave a mark on his mind he will not soon forget.
The only thing that snapped him out of his stupor was the sight of some straggling zombies taking notice of both him and Teddy and now hobbling towards them. With his nerves back on high adrenaline mode, he threw the mop to the ground and pointed the big stick out at the zombies in a threatening manner.
"Think you could hurry it up there, Teddy?" he asked in a voice that was a higher pitch than he had intended. "These things are coming!"
"I'm unscrewing them as fast as I can here!" Teddy exclaimed as he was halfway through with the first screw. "The people who installed this really screwed these things on tightly. Just fight them off if the get here!"
With a small whimper that reflected Billy's quickly growing panic, he swallowed as much of his worries as possible and tightened his grip on his weapon. All the while, quite a few zombies were now amassing at the girl's corpse with a choice few choosing to wander towards the two. He took small comfort in the thought that he could blame Teddy if they ended up dying since he was the one with martial arts and weapons training and chose instead to fiddle around with unscrewing the padlock.
"Got the first one!" Teddy exclaimed happily as the sound of a screw falling to the floor echoed in the kitchen on top of the other more unpleasant sounds. "Just need one more before we're out. You doing okay, Billy?"
"As great as I can be considering," the raven haired teen said with a loud grunt as he swung at an oncoming zombie and successfully knocked it to the floor with a hit to the ribs. However, he himself almost fell to the floor upon having his momentum be stopped so suddenly and put him off balance. Thankfully, the next zombie was still a good distance away considering the pace it was limping towards them. "Just hurry up with that damned lock! I don't think I can last long with my bad strikes!"
"Have confidence in yourself and you'll be fine," the blond assured him as he took note of the fallen zombie that was writhing on the floor and having a hard time getting to its feet. "Just remember to prepare for the kickback when your strikes hit them. It'll help with keeping your balance after the fact."
"Thanks for the suggestion!" Billy thanked as he prepared himself for another oncoming zombie. "I'll keep that in mind!"
With the second zombie now quickly closing in, he tested out Teddy's suggestion and immediately noticed a huge change. Instead of stumbling upon impact, he now had a better grip on his stance and hardly even lost his balance. With this fueling his confidence, he prepared himself for the third zombie that was quickly closing the distance between them. Unfortunately, his confidence was short-lived as it seemed to quickly give birth to over-confidence and thus sloppiness.
When Billy went for a third swing, he badly misjudged the distance between him and the zombie. As a result, he completely missed and did a complete 360 before falling to the floor and the stick now out of his hands. Thankfully, he managed to clip the zombie when he did the full circle, but it did not prove to do much in stopping its overall momentum.
"Billy!!!" Teddy exclaimed in both worry and exasperation as he quickly abandoned the latch and threw his knife at the zombie. The blade embedded itself deep within its forehead before it fell backwards with a thud and thus effectively stalling the zombies that were close behind it. He then asked as he went to pick Billy up, "How did you manage to pull off something like that? But seriously, are you okay?"
"Y-Yeah, I'm fine!" Billy stuttered out as he was quickly pulled to his feet. "But what about the latch? You just used the knife to take out the zombie. How are you going to unscrew it now?"
"It's out enough that it can be unscrewed by hand," the blond quickly explained as he picked up the nearby mop since the stick was now in zombie territory. He then said in a commanding tone as he assumed a fighting stance, "Go and finish unscrewing the latch. I'll go ahead and keep these guys away!"
Without complaint, the raven haired teen quickly approached the latch and began unscrewing the screw that had been left unfinished. He only hoped that Teddy was right in that he could get it out by hand now. In the meantime, the blond had busied himself with taking down zombies while wielding the mop in an expert fashion.
"I never thought I'd have to use my karate and weapons skills for something like this!" he murmured under his breath as zombies started falling onto their sides and backs. Soon enough, the kitchen became too crowded with zombies that it was getting very hard for his attacks to do much damage. "Are you done there yet, Billy? I don't think I can hold out much longer here with so little space!"
"…Got it!" Billy exclaimed as the second screw fell to the floor with an audible ping before rolling away to who knew where. He then all but shouted as he gripped the door handle, "Now we can get out of here and… AAHHHH!!!!!"
The moment he pulled the door open, a snarling zombie came tumbling out from the other side and fell on top of him. Falling to the floor, Billy brought his hands up in an attempt to keep the monster from biting him as he fell hard on his back to the floor."
"Billy!" Teddy shouted as he turned around and saw his best friend once again wrestling with a zombie on the floor. Just as he was about to move in to help, he felt something weighted tugging at his shoulders. "What the…?!"
When he turned his head towards his right, he saw a snarling face just about ready to sink its teeth into his shoulders. He barely managed to bring his left hand to the monster's forehead before it could take a bite out of him.
With a cry for help, Billy dared to turn his head towards Teddy and saw that he himself was in trouble. Seeing that he was on his own here, he began to frantically search for something that could help him. It was a long shot, but he went with Teddy's saying in that it was better to die trying than to do nothing at all.
His eyes soon caught sight of a pair of scissors resting underneath a nearby table towards his left. With desperation fueling his every movement, Billy quickly yet carefully brought his right hand on the zombie's throat so as to prevent it from coming down on him. His left hand then stretched out in an attempt to get a hold of the scissors. This proved to be quite hard as he was fighting against both the laws of gravity with the deadly load above him and the distance between him and his only hope for salvation.
After a few seconds that felt like an eternity, the teen finally managed to get his hands on the weapon. With it now clutched tightly in his hands, he swung it hard into the zombie's head in an attempt to get it to stop coming at him. With the first strike merely slowing it down, he pulled the now bloody blade out before digging into its skull once more. This time, it stopped struggling completely before he pushed it aside with the scissors digging deeper into its head when he struck the floor.
"I-I'm coming, Teddy!" Billy exclaimed as he scrambled onto his feet. He did not know what he could do to help, but he would be damned if he just stood there like an idiot while his best friend was in need of help!
However, he barely even took a step towards his distressed best friend before a blur appeared behind him and took out the zombie that had him temporarily paralyzed. It was so fast; he immediately froze to the spot as the blond was now stumbling towards him.
"The hell…?!" Teddy exclaimed in surprise as he stumbled into Billy's arms before regaining his footing and turning around. "What was that?"
"Me, that's who!" a familiar voice shouted before the sound of a punch connecting with bone was heard. "And save your thanks for when we're out of here!"
"Greg!" the blond shouted in both surprise and fright as he quickly picked up his fallen mop and jabbed the handle into the zombie that was hovering dangerously close over his rescuer. "Come on; we're getting out of here!"
"No need to tell me twice!" Greg quickly agreed as he made two large strides along the floor in gorilla fashion away from the growing horde before hopping to his feet and continuing the same momentum out the now open door to the loading area. Both Billy and Teddy quickly followed suit with the blond closing the door behind him so as to prevent the zombies from moving any further.
"God damn it…!" the blond swore with a huge sigh of relief as he quickly scanned the area for any more zombies before leaning against a nearby wall. "Things can't possibly get any closer than that!"
As he kept his eyes open for any other unpleasant surprises, he took note of the two that were in the room with him. Billy had taken a seat on a nearby stack of empty crates looking positively shaken over his second near-death experience that day resulting with a zombie on top of him. It was clear that he was probably going to suffer a nervous breakdown soon if he was forced into another wrestling match with a zombie that day. That was when he decided to take a seat next to the raven haired teen and place a comforting arm over his shoulders. Thankfully, this seemed to do the trick as his breathing stopped giving off a shuddering effect and was now quick and heavy.
Greg, on the other hand, simply had a stoic look on his face with only his heavy breathing any indication of the apprehension he was no doubt feeling at the entire situation. He was leaning next to the door they had just come through and now had zombies pounding away on the other side. Either he had no fear of the monsters potentially breaking into the loading area and being caught by them first or was just too tired to care. Luckily for them all, the door only opened in one direction, a direction that they could not open considering how they were just desperately pounding away.
For now, the three decided to relish in their well-deserved reprieve from what proved to be a very real and very deadly experience. None of them knew how long they were going to be able to rest from this ever growing hell, but they were going take advantage of it for as long as they could.
Nowhere can ever be safe when in the middle of a zombie attack! To be perfectly honest, the whole 'zombie invading the kitchen' idea just came as a sudden and random idea right when Teddy was going to unscrew the latch. Now that I look back on it, the chapter would have been pretty boring if I didn't put that detail into the story.
But yeah, everything after the part where the zombies first came into the kitchen was not planned in any way. I had only planned for them to get out of the kitchen without any incidents. This just goes to show how ideas can just suddenly pop out of nowhere and drastically change how the overall chapter or story ends up being.
And yes, I've decided to bring back Greg from the last chapter. Unless he's had some mention in the Young Avengers comics that I have yet to read yet, he is meant to be my original character. He was originally supposed to be gone story-wise after his cameo last chapter, but I figured I could give him some more air time even if only for potentially a little bit.
And poor Billy. I just noticed that this is the second time I've got him being crushed by a zombie. At least I got him this time handling it himself instead of relying on Teddy's help. For those of you who played Resident Evil 4, I honestly have no intention of having him turn into stupid Ashley who could not even handle herself from zombies.
And now I'll leave you with the outtakes section of this story. Please don't forget to leave a review before you move onto the next story that you want to read on this site. Until the next update to this or any of my other stories everybody!
Outtakes:
Billy: Uh, could you let go of my arm, Teddy?
Teddy: Oh, sorry about that! (Starts to blush a bit)
Billy: (Slightly amused) Are you blushing?
Teddy: No, I'm not!
Billy: Is there something you're not telling me?
Teddy: Oh, if only you knew. (Distracts himself by working on latch)
/
Billy: Yeah, I got another zombie! I'm on a role!
Teddy: Just make sure you don't miss.
(Billy completely misses third zombie and falls on floor)
Billy: Teddy, help!
Teddy: Sorry Billy; you're on your own. (Unlocks door and leaves)
Billy: Teddy!!! (Tries to get to his feet but gets mosh pitted by zombies)
/
Billy: Damn it! (Struggling with zombie on floor)
Teddy: Sorry; you're on your own, Billy! (Struggling with own zombie)
(Billy sees scissors and struggles to get them but fails and gets bitten in neck)
Teddy: BILLY!!!!!
(Teddy continues to struggle but soon gets double-teamed and killed)
/
Greg: Oh yeah; you owe me, Teddy!
Billy: Greg...
Greg: I didn't think that a guy like you would have this kind of trouble.
Teddy: Greg...!
Greg: I mean, you're like the most attentive guy on the baseball field and... AAHHH!!! (Gets bitten in shoulder)
Billy: ...Can't say we didn't try to warn him.
Teddy: Eh, I didn't want to end up owing him for saving me, so I guess it works out in the end.
(Calmly leaves kitchen while Greg is getting eaten)