Hello everybody! Here's a new chapter of this new story for you all to read after having you all wait for a little over a week to see it. For those of you who bother to read author's notes, you'll understand why I slowed down. For those of you who don't, then here's another chance for you to understand why I'm slowing down now.

For those of you who share my educational pain, I'm right now back in my college classes and having to dedicate more time to my work. This quarter is especially so since I'm right now slacking off in my grades and need to bump them up. As such, my school work is of utmost importance this quarter in that I don't want my grades to suffer any more than they already have. And because of that, it means a slowdown in all of my updates. Sorry, but my priorities come first.

Anyway, that's all I wanted to say on that accord. Let me move on by telling you a little bit about this story. First off, I'm using the names of actual towns and cities that are in New York. In honor of how the Young Avengers, I had them start out in New York where they live. However, I had them start out in a rural part of the state since I found having them somewhere like time square would be a big hell to write when it came to the whole zombie thing. I'll write them going into a big city one of these chapters, but right now just does not seem like the right time for that.

Secondly, this is the first time I'm actually writing a story without first knowing how the ending is going to be. Then again, this is a zombie story. It's pretty much an open end as to how the story's going to finish up. Actually, I do kind of have an idea as to how it'll end, but I'm not overly sure that I'll be able to pull it off. I guess we'll just have to wait and see when the time comes.

Well, that's it for my rants here. Please don't forget to leave a review before you move onto whatever other story that you want to read on this site. As I always say, I take them into consideration and also take note of whatever suggestions or criticism that you may have. Of course, I don't accept flame reviews that don't impart either encouragement or suggestions. Just throwing it out there as a formality.

Until the next update to this or any of my other stories on this site everybody! And don't forget, expect a slowdown in my updates because of me having to put more commitment in school now. After all, college is important, especially in this day when jobs are hard to find and get if you happen to live in the United States like me.

Chapter 6: Into the Streets of Town

Before Teddy opened the door that served as his and the others' way out of this zombie-infested school, he looked at both Billy and Greg to see if they were ready for whatever might happen. Greg was standing on the other side of the doorway with his crowbar at the ready in case something came rushing in towards them; Billy was hanging back a bit and aiming his gun at the door in case something suddenly came bursting in. Both gave a stout nod that signified they were ready to take on whatever might come their way.

Once he saw each of them confirm that they were ready, the blond turned the knob and quickly swung the door open. Naturally, they had psyched themselves up for the potential worst case scenario in that they were going to be attacked by a group of zombies. After all, they've learned from the longest hour of their lives in this nightmare made real that they should start expecting the unexpected to occur whenever it can. Nobody could really blame them for acting like a bunch of paranoid idiots, especially when they've witnessed first-hand what the monsters could do.

Thankfully for them, they were greeted with wonderful calm instead of the calamity they were expecting. In fact, what they saw was just an empty school driveway with only trash bins and other miscellaneous things littering their way. Comforted by this sight, they all let out a heavy sigh they were unknowingly holding before walking outside into the cool brisk air that felt oddly comforting. However, they kept their psyched-up attitude in the foreground of their minds in case they needed to dip into its offered adrenaline rush.

"Finally, we can go somewhere without having to be greeted by those sons of bitches!" Greg excitedly cursed in an exasperated tone as he rested the crowbar over his shoulder in a nonchalant fashion. "I was afraid that we might have to run for our lives again. I sure as hell don't feel like doing that again."

"Just try to keep your guard up through this, Greg," Teddy warned as he kept his weapon at the ready for the unexpected. "You never know when and where these things might pop out from and literally bite us in the ass."

"Yes, mother," the other teen replied in an annoyed tone before actually readying his weapon again. "You just make sure Billy over there doesn't end up blowing my brains out with his so-called 'eagle eye' aim."

"Would you guys stop making fun of my aiming already?" Billy whined as he was the last out and closed the door with his free hand as a precautionary measure. "I'm really not all that bad with a gun, you know?"

"And as I said before, arcade games doesn't count as target practice," the blond simply countered. "I'm sure you've heard of something called a kickback that results when a bullet is shot. What if that ended up messing up your overall aim because of that and gets one of us shot? We can't afford to be injured like that right now if not ever."

"Didn't I already promise you that I wouldn't be aiming anywhere near you guys? You really have to relax a bit on this, Teddy."

"Guys, could you shut up for a second!" Greg quickly shushed the two as he motioned with his free hand towards the direction that would take them out to the streets. "I think I just heard something."

Quickly dipping into their paranoia high they had accumulated from inside the school, Teddy and Billy immediately quieted down and tried to listen in on what the other teen was hearing. At first, they heard absolutely nothing that would warrant attention. However, they soon heard the sound of running footsteps accompanied with the sounds of heavy breaths a couple of seconds later.

Almost immediately after they had successfully discerned what the sounds were, two men with guns in their hands started running down the driveway towards them. Judging by their appearance, they were members of the local police department who were hopefully engaged in a strategic retreat.

"What are you kids doing out here?" one of them asked rather loudly as the officers stopped a few feet away. "You shouldn't be loitering around. The entire city's gone to hell! Hurry up and take cover inside the school."

"Oh, no way in hell you're going to make us go back in there!" Greg exclaimed as he immediately brought his body in front of the door to prevent the cops from going in. "We just came from in there, officer. We're lucky to even be standing out here right now after what we've been through!"

"What are you talking about?" the second officer asked with confusion written all over his face. "This school was designated as one of the evacuation zones. This is practically one of the safest places there is in this town!"

"Why don't you try one of the most dangerous?" Teddy quickly corrected in a deadpan fashion. "The school is filled with nothing but zombies now along with students trying to escape with their lives intact. Like my friend here just said, the three of us barely managed to get out of there with our own skins attached. Trust us when we say you don't want to even think about going in there right now."

"…You're not serious, are you?" the first officer rhetorically asked as he looked behind them as if expecting something to suddenly show up. "When all this started, the mayor said that this was one of the places that were going to be considered a disaster shelter. He even put out an emergency broadcast telling anybody who happened to be in the nearby area to come here for shelter. How could it already be overrun with those monsters?!"

"Then where's the next closest place to take shelter?" the blond quickly asked once he heard about the mayor's announcement for designated safe zones. "If it's too far, then we're thinking about hiding out at our homes."

"Are your homes north of here?" the second officer asked as the teens nodded their heads in acknowledgement. "If that's the case, then don't even think about going home! Those monsters apparently started their rampage from the north before making their way down here. The police along with some members of the military have set up barricades to keep them from advancing, but I honestly don't know how long that's going to last. We haven't heard of any reports of them coming from the south, so that's your best bet if you're planning on making a run out of this town."

"…So much for trying to make our way home," Greg replied in a despondent tone. "And where do you suggest we go to? I doubt just heading south with no destination in mind would be very productive."

"Your best bet is to make your way to the New York-New Jersey border town called Suffern," the first officer suggested as he slowly made his way back the way he and his partner had come from. "The chief said that if things became too out of hand, we should tell any people we run into to instead head to Suffern. Apparently, they have some kind of plan there to better protect against chaotic scenes like this."

As the officer passed the corner, he immediately brought his gun up and startled the teens when he fired it. His partner immediately concentrated his gaze in the direction where the shot was fired. In the next moment, a zombie was seen falling forward with its arms outstretched as if it were about to grab a victim before being put down.

"Damn, they're here!" he exclaimed as he started firing more rounds with his partner now entering the fray. "You kids hurry and get out of here! My partner and I will try to keep these idiots occupied until you're gone."

"B-But what are you two planning on doing?" Billy asked as Teddy took a tight hold of his wrist and started following Greg out into the school parking lot. Now with a better view of the street, they saw that it was littered with zombies now converging on their current location. They could also see a few students and teachers who somehow managed to escape the chaos that was the inside of the school escaping with some of them screaming bloody murder.

"We're going to try and save the people still trapped in the school!" the second officer quickly replied as he shot a zombie that was close to Teddy in the head. "It's our duty to protect and save people in trouble like you three. You just worry about yourselves now. Make your way to Suffern and try to avoid contact with these things. If you do, make sure to hit them in the head. It seems to take them down without an effort!"

"Alright; thanks!" Teddy quickly thanked the officer for the suggestion. "And you guys be careful when you head through the kitchen. It's swarming in there!"

Now the teens had a solid destination in mind on where to go in order to ride out this chaotic mass cannibalistic murder, the New York-New Jersey border town of Suffern that was south from where they currently were. All the while, the officers were slowly backing towards the door the teens had just left through while successfully drawing the zombies' attention with their constant shooting. With one last look behind them, Billy saw the two officers enter the loading area just before being swamped by the zombies they had bravely drawn their attention so as to allow them to escape without incident.

However, just because the attention was not concentrated on them did not mean they escaped notice from the zombies' one-track minds. The few who had chosen to ignore all the gunfire were dawdling at the end of the growing zombie crowd or just plain aimlessly wandering around. As a result, these dawdlers were now taking interest in the escaping teens and tried their best to impede their safe retreat.

Not wanting to be a zombie's dinner anytime soon, Greg quickly took out two of them that were in front of their path, one with an upward slash to the groin that incited a strangely high pitched guttural growl from the zombie and a sideswipe on the other to the ribs that sounded out a sickening crack. Teddy also took out one who had dared to sneak up on them from the other side of a large pick-up truck by embedding the sharp portion of the crowbar into its stomach. However, Billy was the one to deliver the first blow to its head with the butt of his pistol as a sudden reaction since he was the intended target first. It had been way too close for him to have done much else beyond the rather weak strike that did no more daze the monster long enough for the blond to properly attack it.

"Do you really think that Suffern is going to be safer than here?" Billy asked as they continued on with their escape with the path clear. The blond teen was still dragging him by the wrist despite not being in immediate danger anymore. "What if it turns out that things are a lot worse there than they are here? I mean, we really don't know just how bad things are. We could be heading for another infested trap, for all we know."

"Well, anywhere is definitely better than staying here," Teddy simply answered as he finally found the decency to let go yet still continue with their escape from the school grounds. A couple drops of sweat fell into his eyes, but he ignored it and kept his attention ahead of him. "As long as we keep moving like this and avoid any unnecessary run-ins with these monsters, we should be fine."

"Try speaking for yourself, Teddy," Greg called back as he took out another zombie he had approached with a good clean swing to the head. It was clear to him now that the officers' advice was spot-on seeing as how the monster just fell down and stopped moving after having its skull brutally cracked. "Running like this is a good way to getting killed from exhaustion. And do you even know where exactly Suffern is besides being in the south?"

"If we can get to the freeway or even access to a map of sorts, then we should have an idea where to go," the blond simply replied as he kept his eyes open for anymore unwanted surprises, his crowbar at the ready for more action. "We shouldn't run into too much trouble with directions."

"And what about the travelling problem?" the other asked as they reached the street that would take them home and went down the opposite direction. As earlier stated by the officers that had covered their escape, the northern road was swamped with zombies trying to break through a police and army barricade. "Moving from one town to another on foot like this is a great way to get ourselves killed by zombie surprise attacks. If we run into an entire herd like the one that the military is fighting to keep back, chances are we're not going to outrun them before running out of breath ourselves."

"We can just hitch a ride with someone heading down there or just take an abandoned car that might still have the keys in it. I think we'd be lucky if we could get one of those to work in our favor. And if we do end up having to drive a car, we'd be very lucky if we can get to Suffern without crashing into something once."

"Apart from the whole thought about crashing cars, what if neither possibilities end up happening? Do you know how much trouble we'll be in if we're forced to travel by foot the entire way? We'd have to sleep out in the open and worry about whether or not we'll wake up in the morning. And let's not forget to mention the obvious food problem we'd run into having to travel so far for god knows how long. It's going to come up by tomorrow at the least if we continue just running to Suffern with nothing but these weapons and the clothes on our backs. We need to find somewhere to stock up for the journey."

"Look, let's just concentrate on what it is we can do at this exact moment," Teddy finally said in a serious tone as he stopped dead in his tracks at a street crossing. He was now really sweating and had to brush his matted bangs away from his eyes. "Just stop trying to think so far ahead. It'll end up hurting you more than it's supposed to help. If you're so concerned about what's going to happen to us tomorrow, you're going to forget about worrying what's going to happen today. Just take it one step at a time before you end up getting yourself killed with your hypothetical thinking."

"Teddy's right, Greg," Billy agreed between slight pants as his eyes wandered up the streets to look for any hostiles. It seemed as though they were safe for now from both the horde they had managed to lose and any other nearby zombies. "Thinking ahead never got anybody anywhere, especially when it comes to something as crucial as this. You can always try to anticipate what's going to happen next, but you're never going to be able to fully discover what's going to take place. You're just going to make yourself panic over nothing. Just concentrate on today and worry about tomorrow when it comes around."

"…God, how do you always manage to come up with the right things to say, Billy?" the other teen rhetorically asked as he turned to look at the two teens, his crowbar arm never once relaxing. "You must've been a psychiatrist or something in a past life. But can you really blame me for being a bit wound up right now? I mean, I just basically left my family at home trying to save my own skin here!"

"That's considering that they're even still at home," the raven haired teen brought up as he adjusted the holster resting somewhat loosely around his waist. His gun was still resting in his left hand ready to be used at a moment's notice. "The officers said that the northern section of town was already overrun by the zombies with the military helping with the containment. The only way they could've known that was if they came from that direction themselves. It would only stand to reason that most of the citizens have already made their way out of there and have at least headed towards this direction."

"But what if they ended up going into the school without knowing just what kind of hell they were walking into? Even the cops couldn't tell that we barely made it out of that infestation with our lives?"

"Didn't you once tell me that you had family down in Suffern?" Teddy suddenly asked as he placed a calming hand on Greg's shoulder. "You said that it was your cousins whom your family is very close to. I've been to your place quite a few times; it's kind of hard to miss how close you are with them. Wouldn't your parents then go to them instead of heading to the school for shelter in a case like this? I know my mom would've preferred to be around people she trusted were she still around."

"…God, I'm such an idiot!" Greg exclaimed as he did a face-palm at his moment of panicked stupidity. "Of course they would go down there. Unless there was some big massive wall of flames blocking their way or some sudden split in the Earth, they'd head down there in a heartbeat if there ever were a life threatening emergency like this. I can't believe I let myself forget about something like that."

"Oh no, I almost forgot!" Billy suddenly exclaimed as his voice was immediately filled with worry. This easily caught the attention of both teens, Teddy in particular since he knew that the teen would not so suddenly sound worried without merit. "My brother's right now down in Suffern with the track team representing our school! He said the competition was supposed to start today, so he should still be down there in Suffern High."

"Humph, then it looks like we all have an ulterior motive for going there," the blond replied. "If that's where we're all heading towards, then we better make sure we're prepared for a potentially long and tiring walk in case we can't get a ride. Hopefully, things are better there that it wouldn't matter if we have to walk the whole way."

"Wait a minute; you're coming with us?" the other teen asked with eyebrows raised in question. "No offense here, but you said your mom was your only family before she ended up going down because of a freak heart attack. Unless there's something you're not telling us, you don't really have anything to look for in Suffern."

"You're right; I don't have anybody to go to in Suffern. The only family I have left is the people taking care of me ever since my mother passed, but they're right now out of town on business. However, I think the fact that you two are planning on heading down there is more than enough reason for me to follow along. After all, who's going to make sure that you two don't try to do anything stupid while out on the road? Billy can easily become overconfident when you give him that chance, and you sometimes let your hot head get the better of you. It'd probably be best if a level-headed guy like me came along just to at least play the role of the most sensible person."

"Well, aren't we lucky then to have you coming along with us," the raven haired teen replied with an amused huff of his breath as a slight breeze suddenly started to blow. "Are you sure that's the only reason why you're going to follow us? No ulterior motives like to just get the heck out of here or anything like that?"

"…Yeah, I guess that'd be the main reason why I'll be coming along," Teddy replied with an innocent smile as if he had just been caught keeping a secret of sorts. "Then again, I'd say that's what we all have in mind now. You got to have a few loose screws not to consider at least getting out of this town.

"And speaking of which, what do you guys think we should do first?" he quickly asked as Greg's earlier rant flowed through his mind. "Greg was right in saying that we're going to have to prepare for whatever comes our way. If we're forced to walk to Suffern, then we're going to need to make sure we've got food and what other supplies we'll need. I doubt someone would just let us hitch a ride with them just like that, especially when they're desperately trying to get away and most likely not going to listen to reason."

"Well, we could head to my girlfriend's house," Greg suggested as he chose this time to officially check what street they were on. "She happens to live just a couple of blocks away from here. We should be able to stock up on some food and what other stuff we're going to need. I know her parents have a good stockpile of canned goods and medicinal supplies in case some kind of natural disaster like a freak blizzard happened. That should be good enough for the time being."

"Are you sure her parents wouldn't mind us just taking their stuff?" the blond asked with a skeptical eyebrow raised. "I mean, I doubt they'd even condone the thought of us heading to Suffern on our own."

"Fortunately for us, they just so happen to be attending a convention all the way in the Hamptons," the teen simply explained as he started to head down a certain street. "There's no way they're going to be rushing back here once they've heard how dangerous it has gotten, especially when New York traffic would no doubt slow them down considerably. And even if they manage to come back, they'll just think their daughter took some with her before running to safety. Either way, we're going to end up having a supply of food that'll tie us over for who knows how long in relation to our potential walking trip to Suffern."

"…Then here's to hoping that neither your girlfriend nor her parents would mind too much if and when they figure it out. Come on; hurry up and lead the way. The sooner we get there, the quicker we can head to the border town."

Before he could say anything else, the sharp sound of a bullet piercing through the air brought an abrupt halt to everything. Greg had stopped moving and was looking around frantically for the source; Teddy was also doing the same thing although soon staring at Billy to confirm his suspicions. As he had suspected, it was the teen who had shot the gun that was currently being aimed at his general direction, the smoke from the barrel still billowing slightly from the recent firing.

"Did you just shoot that thing at me, Billy?" Teddy asked once his brain registered what he was seeing. He was shocked that he was shot at despite having already warned the other about not aiming at him. "I thought I told you to be careful where you aim that damned thing! You could have killed me, you know?"

"Well, excuse me for just saving your life there!" Billy apologized sarcastically as he put his gun back into its holster. "If you'd just turn around, you'll notice a dead zombie that was about to take a chunk out of you with a bullet in its head courtesy of me."

"Wh-What?" the blond dumbly replied as he turned around and indeed saw a zombie lying flat on its back with a bullet through its head. What was surprising about this was how it had managed to get uncomfortably close without him noticing. At best, it was at least a couple feet away from where he was standing.

"Do you still want to make fun of my aim, Teddy?" the raven haired teen asked as he had a sort of triumphant smirk on his face. "I told you all those arcade shooting games were just as good as actual target practice."

Instead of saying anything, the blond simply turned his attention back at Billy and gave him a daydream-like glance that said everything. It showed that he was thankful for having his life saved while completely amazed at the accuracy the other had just showcased despite only firing a real gun for the first time in his life at that moment. Boy, was he just proven wrong that those arcade shooting games were not target practice.

"…Damn, Billy!" Greg finally said after getting over the shock of seeing the person he had once bullied in elementary school actually pulling off something both cool and heroic. "And I thought you were kidding when you said you had good aim. Remind me to never doubt you again whenever it comes to anything that has to do with guns."

"Still, I'd rather not use it unless I really have to," Billy quickly replied as he suddenly seemed a bit shy at the praise. "Apart from being able to pick away zombies from far away, it's kind of loud."

"Of course it's loud," Teddy stated in an annoyed tone once he finally found his voice. "Were you thinking it'd be quiet like a water gun or something?"

"That's not what I was referring to, Teddy," the raven haired teen corrected as he ignored the annoyance aimed at him. "Remember how the officers we ran into covered us by drawing the zombies' attention to them? Those monsters made a beeline for them while they were shooting their guns. They might already be dead, but I have a bad feeling that they can still hear pretty well."

"…You got a good point there," the blond agreed as he gave it some thought. "If that's the case, then we probably better get out of here. Because of what you just did, we might've gained ourselves some unwanted attention. Think you could hurry and take us to your girlfriend's house, Greg?"

"Make sure you guys keep up," Greg replied with a nod of his head as he went on a full-on run down the street. "I'm not going to wait up for you if one of you gets lost."

Billy and Teddy, both caught off-guard by the sudden movement, quickly followed suit. All of them kept their eyes open for whatever might decide to sneak up on them when they least expected it. Then again, they have already taken care of a few zombies themselves, so they should not have too much of a problem beating down a couple more if they ever had to do it again. Yep, things looked like they were now starting to get somewhat better.

Well, that's it for this chapter. Despite having said all that in a big panic, Greg did bring up some good points on how exactly they were going to safely make their way to Suffern. To be perfectly honest, even I have my concerns on this. But I'm sure I'll be able to pull something off the top of my head for this to work. At least the gang are now going to Greg's girlfriend's house to stock up on food and supplies. That's as good a place to start out in a situation like this, right?

But yeah, now we know that Billy wasn't kidding when he said that he knew how to both use and aim a gun. I guess all that arcade shooting game play really helped him out with that. As you can see, the shy bully kid can easily have a tough side to him that nobody would ever know. That's also a little bit of me there in Billy minus the whole actually using a real gun thing. I love shooting games and I like to say I have a pretty good aim myself.

But that's beside the point here. Let me just go ahead and leave you with some outtakes. Please don't forget to leave a review before you move onto the next story that you want to read. They are always helpful and very appreciated. Until the next update to this or any of my other stories everybody!

Outtakes:

(Officers appear at the school in the loading area driveway)

Officer 1: Survivors, come on! We got to help 'em.

Teddy: Where the hell are they coming from?! (Backs up a bit)

Officer 2: My first day as a cop and already I'm in a shootout! (fires gun at zombies)

Billy: No, I don't wanna die! (Shoots zombie in the chest)

Greg: Die you cannibal creeps! (Swings crowbar at zombie)

Teddy: ... Wait a minute. (Raises eyebrow) Why are we quoting lines from Resident Evil 6 here?

Greg and Billy: (Everybody, including zombies, stops and thinks) ...Well, we figured that the occasion was right for it and to try and make mention of a certain game.

Teddy: Stop kidding around, you idiots! This isn't some kind of free advertisement stint!

/

Billy: Do you really think it'll be safer down in Suffern, Teddy?

Teddy: Well, the officer did mention it to us as we were running away. And he also said that he got the orders from the mayor himself, so it should be safe.

Greg: I somehow really doubt that.

Billy: And why do you say that?

Greg: Well, the chances are good that the place is "Suffern"-ing the same fate as our town here. Get it?

Billy and Teddy: ... ... ...(Both give deadpan gazes to Greg)

Greg: Come on; didn't you get it?

Teddy: ...Whatever. (Walks away with Billy following close behind)

Greg: Oh, don't be a couple of sticks in the mud, you guys! (Runs to catch up)

/

Greg: I'm just being curious here, but what are you guys' reason for heading to Suffern?

Billy: Like you, Greg, I'm going to look for family. That and it's theoretically safer there.

Teddy: I'm just going because you two are. (Shrugs his shoulders) Someone needs to make sure you both don't do anything stupid along the way.

Greg: So you're just coming to babysit us? (Raises skeptical eyebrow)

Teddy: Yeah, why? Not a good enough reason for you?

Greg: I was actually thinking you were coming under the pretense that you'd be able to score with Billy.

Billy: What?! (Looks at Teddy with a shocked gaze)

Teddy: G-Greg's just kidding! (Quickly walks beside Greg and sharply jabs him in the ribs) Isn't that right?

Greg: The hell you do that for?! You told me before how you've always dreamed of plowing through his a...

(Knocks Greg over the head with crowbar and makes him unconscious)

/

Greg: Let's head to my girlfriend's place. We can stock up on supplies for the trip to Suffern.

Teddy: Good idea. Go ahead and lead...

(BANG)

Teddy: OOOOWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Shouts in pain while gripping right arm)

Billy: Oops! (Hides smoking gun sheepishly behind back) Sorry about that.

Teddy: WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU, BILLY?!

Billy: ...Sorry, but I was just trying to aim at the zombie hovering behind you.

Teddy: Couldn't you at least tell me to move out of the way first before shooting? I told you not to try out your eagle-eye aim on me!

Billy: Hey, at least killed the zombie at the same time. Give me some credit for that.

Teddy: Oh, I'll give you credit for that, alright. (Lunges at Billy and begins to punch him with uninjured arm)

Greg: (Watches the two fight) Oh, how the best of friends can become the worst of enemies. At least I'm getting a good show out of this. (Gives off a sadistic smile)