"Psst! Wendy! Hey Wendy, wake up!" "Wha-?" I awoke to the sound of someone calling out my name. There was a slight rustling at my window and through sleepy eyes, I saw the familiar black clad figure who filled it.
"Dib?" I croaked. Clumsily, I reached to open the casement and he scrambled into the room immediately. "What are you doing here?" I whispered, glancing at the clock. "It's two in the morning."
"I just couldn't wait to tell you the exciting news!" he gushed loudly. "Shhh!" I hissed. "You'll wake up my mom!" "Oh right," he said lowering his voice. "Sorry." I gave him a puzzled look. "So I take it the latest infiltration into Zim's base went well?" "Yes and no." "What do you mean?" I asked. Before he could continue, a strange thought occurred to me. "Wait a minute. How did you even get up here in the first place? This house is two stories high and there is no way to climb up."

"That's what I'm trying to tell you!" Dib said excitedly. "I flew!" "You flew?" "Yes! All by myself I flew! There I was, slipping into Zim's base unnoticed at first but it wasn't until after I had planted that last spy cam when things got interesting."
"Oh no! Did he see you?" "Well yeah, he did but it wasn't as bad as you'd think. You see, after I was captured he began to
run some experiments by placing me in one of those glass tanks."
I gasped but he held up both hands, signaling for me to let him continue. "Here's the twist. Little did Zim know that the liquid he submersed me in gave me some sort of...super powers!" he gave a triumphant little giggle. "Can you believe that idiot?
His little plan backfired and I managed to use my new strength to bust myself out of there! He made a futile attempt to
stop me but my supersonic speed was no match for him so I escaped!"

"That's...great," I started but Dib cut me off again. "I'd like to see Zim's mission try to prevail now! This is amazing, Wendy! You won't believe all the abilities I have. Watch this!" He removed his glasses and two neon blue laser beams suddenly shot from his eyes, melting a nearby lamp. "Woah there!" I cried, gripping his shoulder to stop him. "Don't go destroying the whole house now!" "Oops sorry," Dib said, realizing his mistake. "Got a little too excited there, I guess."

The next morning, I stepped out of my mom's car and waved goodbye as I headed up towards the double door entrance.
Rushing to get out of the cold, I stepped into the 'skool', which for some reason looked strangely deserted.
That was weird. First period was only six minutes away and usually the halls were still packed with students at this time.
Huh. Maybe there was some kind of pep rally or assembly going on that I didn't know about? Or a class field trip?
Whatever it was, I couldn't help but be a little nervous about it. Something was definitely not right here.
Before going to Bitters' class, I decided to make a pit stop by the girls' bathroom. The florescent lights flickered eerily overhead as I walked to the mirror to smooth out my windswept hair.
"UUUUNNNGGGHHH..." The sudden moaning caused my hands to freeze in mid stroke. "Hello?" My eyes darted around
struggling to locate source of sound. "Someone there?"

"UUUUNNNNNNNGHHHHH!" Dropping to all fours, I scanned the rows of stalls for any signs of life but all appeared to be empty. That was when I noticed somebody huddled in the corner. The girl sat there, knees drawn up to her chest as she rocked
back and forth. "Jessica?" I recognized. Her once perfect Barbie blonde hair now looked dingy as it hung in her face. "Are you okay?"
I asked, kneeling down in front of her. "Would you like me to take you to the nurse?" Jessica only groaned in response
as she continued to rock back and forth a little faster. She peered at me through her dirty tresses with jaundiced eyes.
"Jessica, you don't look good. We need to get you to the nurse if you're really this sick, come on."
I was just about to reach for her hand when all of a sudden she growled and gnashed her teeth at me like a rabid dog.
Instantly, I barreled backwards, knocking over a metal garbage can. What the hell was wrong with her?
I snapped out of my daze in time to see the sickly cheerleader stalking towards me, ropes of foamy saliva dripping from her mouth. I tried my best to scramble to my feet but she had grabbed hold of my leg and was dragging me back towards her.
Oh my god. This was it. I was going to die if I didn't think of something. I struggled for my heavy bookbag before it became too far out of reach. Jessica was about to bite into my calf when I had swung it at her face, knocking her unconscious on the green tiled floor. I was about to climb to my feet when my eyes fell on my arm and my eyes widened in terror. The very spot where Zim's pus had spilled was now a glowing green rash.

I stumbled back into the hall, eyes scanning my surroundings for any further signs of life, preferably the life of a certain creepy little alien I so wished to end. After several minutes of aimless wandering, I finally got what I asked for.
Zim came strutting around the corner, his horrible little green face looking even more pocked than before as he whistled an innocent tune to himself. He appeared to be heading in the direction opposite of me. As soon as he got close enough, that was when I moved in for the kill. I gave him no time to react before I threw him against the lockers, pinning his scrawny arms back with all my might."WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?" I demanded. "I...don't know what you're talking about."
he said breathlessly. "THIS!" I yanked back my sleeve, revealing my infected arm.

"You did this to me, Zim! What the hell is going on? You better start talking now!" "I'm molting." he confessed, glaring at me through his contact lenses. "Meaning what?" I charged. "Every time there occurs an equinox," explained Zim. "Or alignment of the planets, all alien races experience a molt, myself included."
"Okay, now explain what's happening to me. Oh and while you're at it, maybe you can also explain why the entire student body is suddenly turning into flesh eating zombies?"
"The introduction of Irken DNA to your putrid human flesh I suspect has resulted in an allergic reaction within your weak little system. Who knows how it will affect you should you absorb the molts entirely? It could lead to mutation or death or maybe you'll join your classmates in the whole zombie conspiracy, which I had nothing to do with by the way."
"You're lying!" I accused angrily. "I know this has something to do with your plan, infect all human life with this alien virus you've concocted until we're all dead. You're not fooling anyone, Zim! You're going to fix this mess and you're going to start by extracting your nasty pus from my arm."

A little smirk played across Zim's face, mocking me. "I will do no such favors, miserable little earth larva, for you nor the rest
of this revolting planet. I figure it will be much more amusing to just sit back and watch you all perish instead."
"Dammit Zim!" I yelled, tightening my grip on his arms as I slammed him against the lockers once more.
"This isn't funny! This is really some serious shit you've gotten us into now you better get us out of it otherwise I'm going to make you perish."

Suddenly the metal spider legs emerged from his PAK. In retaliation, he ensnared me, spinning me around so that I was the one being pinned against the lockers instead. "YOU DARE THREATEN ZIM!" he yelled in my face, his jagged tongue going wild.
"Let her go, space monster!" We turned to see Dib zipping down the hall towards us, the same ray of neon blue following close behind him like a comet tail. Obviously threatened by his nemesis's new super powers, Zim retracted the spider legs.
"This isn't over, atrocious little earth worm!" he warned me before retreating down the hall.
"Oh come on!" Dib called after his enemy. "Afraid that I'm suddenly more powerful than you? Get back here and fight like a man Zim! Oh wait, I forgot you're not a man!"

"Dib!" I said, running over to him. "I just saw Jessica. She's not well. I think she's turning into a-" "Zombie, I know," he finished.
"I ran into a few kids exhibiting the same behavior. Here's what we're going to do. Based on what I've seen, the virus hasn't seemed to have spread to everyone just yet. If we can question the students who don't seem to have been infected maybe we can get some answers as to what's going on. All we have to do is split up so-"

"Split up?" I exclaimed. "Are you insane, Dib? It's not safe here anymore! You may have powers to protect yourself now but I don't. I was already attacked in the bathroom! Dealing with Jessica alone was bad enough but what happens if I come across a horde of them? Splitting up is not a good idea!" "Trust me," Dib said, ignoring my concern.
"We'll be able to cover more ground that way. If you get into any trouble, I'll be there. Promise, but we'd better get moving.
You can start by questioning the football team. They would be some of the first to know if they've taken any so called performance enhancers from Zim. In the meantime, I'll check the cafeteria for any food borne organisms. Meet me back here around noon, okay? See ya!"
"Wait!" I called after him. But Dib was already out of there like a bolt of lightning while I stood there alone. Something has definitely changed about him.

After making my way to the football field only to find it vacant, I decided to head towards the next best hangout for jocks. The weight room. There, I luckily managed to flag down the star quarterback I recognized from the other day.
Torque Smackey lay there, his purple jersey saturated with sweat as he did bench presses. Despite concentrating on his workout, he managed a strained smile upon noticing me. "What's up?"
"Hi Torque," I said. "I know we haven't exactly officially met. I'm Wendy." "Yeah, I've seen you around school," He lifted the barbell as if they had kittens on the ends rather than two eighty pound weights. "Did you need something?" "Actually, I have a few questions for you. It's for um, health class." He gave me an odd look. "Okay?" "I was just wondering, are there any steroids going around that you've taken within the last twenty four hours?" Torque exhaled as he brought the barbell down and shook his head. "Nope." "Okay, what about the rest of the team? Have they?" He shrugged. "Not that I know of. Most of us aren't exactly the pill popping or syringe taking type. It goes against coach's wishes. That kind of stuff would result in us getting cut from the team, you know?" "Right, but have you been experiencing any unexplained symptoms of illness? Fever? Joint pain? Nausea? Extreme, unquenchable hunger?"

Torque set the barbell down as he sat up."Nope. Just went to the doctor yesterday and he said I was as healthy as an ox. Hand me that towel, will you?" I grabbed up the towel that lay over a nearby scale and tossed it to him. He proceeded to blot sweat from his brow. "Well," he said, rising from the bench. "I'd better hit the showers before third period starts." "Okay," I said. "But I'd better come with you."Torque gave me a weird look. Well, those were certainly a bad choice of words. "I mean...I could walk you there on my way to class if that's alright with you. I'm headed in that direction anyway."
He chuckled at my awkward explanation. "You're pretty funny. Sure, Wendy. You can walk me to the showers although you're welcome to walk into them too." He gave me a wink as he draped the sweaty towel around his thick neck before leaving the room. Shaking my head, I leisurely ducked out after him.

Though I knew I physically wasn't much help as a bodyguard, I wanted to keep a close watch on Torque. Even if it meant
having to endure listening to his stories about every touchdown he'd scored at least this way, I'd know he was safe.
I also felt better in the company of someone who was tall and physically fit enough to fight off zombies should any more of them show up. "Well, Torque," I said as we approached the showers. "Thanks for letting me interview you. Glad to know you haven't caught that nasty virus that's been going around." When he didn't answer, knots began to form in the pit of my stomach.
"Torque?" I turned to see him slumped down against the wall, his complexion suddenly deathly pale. He appeared to have broken into yet another sweat and I had a sickly feeling that this time, it wasn't from his workout.
"Actually," he said weakly. "Now that you've mentioned it, I am starting to feel a little...feverish." Oh. No.

"Okay, that's it," I said. "We need to get you to the nurse, pronto!" Kneeling beside him, I draped his muscular arm around my slender shoulders and hoisted him to his feet as hard as I could muster.
Due to the fact that I was a five foot tall 110 pound girl supporting the dead weight of a six foot tall boy, the walk to the nurse's office certainly was no picnic. I was relieved to finally get him through the door and into a chair. That relief, however quickly turned to panic when I saw that the office was empty. "Hello!" I called. "Is anyone here? Please we have an emergency!"
Seconds later, there was movement behind one of the desks.

"Stay here," I told Torque. Cautiously, I approached it. "Hello?" No answer. Finally I peered over the edge. The good news was that I found the nurse. The bad news? She didn't seem like she was going to be much help. There she lay, facedown and unconscious beneath a mountain of papers. I picked them up and threw them aside before attempting to help her, at least I hoped I could. "Excuse me," I said shakily. "Nurse? Are you okay? Please be okay..."
Slowly I reached for her shoulder when all of a sudden she sprang up, causing me to scream. She began stalking towards me and I could tell from the look of her eyes and those deep guttural growls that this was no longer our 'skool' nurse.

Frantically, I bolted for the door only to find that it was blocked. Horror stricken, my hand flew to my mouth. "Torque...Oh god, Torque." The now zombiefied jock reached for me. "So...hungry..." he moaned. I barely dodged him and the nurse as the two of them closed in on me. Quickly, I ran to the nearest bookcase in hopes of luring them away from the door.
They began to get closer, closer as I pushed at the bookcase with all my might. "UUUUUNNNFFF!" I yelled when I finally managed to tip it over, successfully trapping them beneath it.
Immediately, I flew out the door and broke into a sprint down the halls. Then I came to an abrupt halt once I saw what was waiting for me just up ahead. More zombies. A horde of them shambling down the stairwell and heading straight for me.

Spinning on my heel, I began to run in the other direction. "DIB!" I screamed. I looked over my shoulder in time to see them ganging up on me. Faster I ran, sneakers slapping loudly against the tile floor with every step I took.
"DIB! WHERE ARE YOU? HELP ME!" Seconds later, there was a flash of blue light and I was swept up into the air
out of harm's way. To my relief, I turned to see that I was safely in the arms of no other than my knight in shining armor himself.
For a moment, Dib hovered there looking down on the horde of zombie students stampeding below.
He then turned to me again. "Are you okay?" "Not at all." I confessed. "Come on," he said. "In here."

We flew into an air vent above where we proceeded to crawl through until we located an exit, leading out into a classroom.
Exasperated, I slumped into a desk and Dib perched on top of the one across from me. "So," I began. "Did you find out
anything?" "Nothing," he replied in frustration. "All the cafeteria food tested clean of any unearthly contaminants and just contained its usual ones. Everyone 'normal' I talked to just acted like I was going off on another one of my 'rampages' and wouldn't give me any straight answers. During all of this, I ended up fighting off more zombies. What about you?"

"Well, it started off with me finding Torque Smackey and unfortunately had to end with me throwing a bookcase on top of both him and our 'skool' nurse. Afterwards, I got chased down by a horde as I'm sure you've just witnessed. Other than that, I haven't found any answers either." "This is madness!" Dib yelled, kicking a chair in frustration.
"Zim's got to be responsible for this somehow but we can't even determine his source of the outbreak! I just wish we could figure out what's going on!" "It's the end of the world." a grim voice suddenly murmured.
Surprised, we looked towards the frail old woman who sat at the teacher's desk, her back turned to us. "Ms. Bitters?" I realized.
"What are you talking about?" "There's no need for you to be ignorant, Wendy. I've been telling all of you this for ages that the apocalypse is on the rise. It's unavoidable."

"How do you even know that that's what's going on?" I argued. "What if it's something else? What if we can stop it?"
Ms. Bitters spun around to face me, thoroughly annoyed by my dispute. "There is nothing you two can do to stop it!
Nothing!" "Oh for crying out loud," Dib said, rolling his eyes. "Will you cut the doomsayer nonsense already? Yes, we know the world is at stake. Yes, we know our school and possibly our planet is becoming overrun by zombies. The question is why? And don't tell us it has to do with some ancient prophecy you've read in an old textbook somewhere determining the fate of our world.
Why don't you just admit that all this time I've been right when I said aliens are to blame for all this? Particularly one you've
been 'schooling' right under your nose for years?"

Ms. Bitters glared at him dangerously. "You dare question the teachings of someone who has lived on this planet much longer than you have?" "Please," I intervened. "Just tell us what we need to do right now?"
She paused for a moment. Then with a heavy sigh, she lowered her head and swiveled her chair back towards us once more.
"Just go home. It's no longer safe here. Both of you go. Now." Dib and I exchanged looks of hopelessness. Clearly, the woman had made up her mind about the world and would be no help to us now.
Before leaving the 'skool', we spent the next half hour rounding up all the infected students and faculty we came across and locked them in the boiler room. If it hadn't been for Dib's powers, the task would have most likely taken a lot longer.
It was the least we could do in order to prevent them from attacking the city and spreading the virus if it hadn't already. I really hoped it hadn't. In the meantime, they would have to stay there until we figured out what to do next.

Since the outbreak, 'skool' had to be closed down until further notice. While most living kids would think of something like this as a vacation, the idea didn't even come close for us. After a tough week of useless research, spying on Zim from Dib's room and finding out nothing, I was so relieved when Friday came around. What a relief it was to finally relax and have dinner with mom and Dib while engaging in normal conversation. Well, almost normal.

As usual, my mom was the first to break the ice. "So tell me about yourself Dib," she said pleasantly as she grabbed a veggie burger. "What do you like to do? Wendy tells me you're into paranormal studies." Dib straightened up in his chair, eager to share his interests. "Yes, I am. I know quite a lot about it. In fact, I'm actually aspiring to become a professional paranormal investigator." "As in hunt ghosts and things?" "Well, yes. Ghosts and other things." "So have you encountered anything unusual so far?" "Yes, in fact we just-" I kicked his foot from under the table, signaling for him to keep quiet.
As much as I supported my love interest on his beliefs, I would rather my mother not know about the things we'd been up too.
She worried about me enough when it came to normal everyday things. The last thing she needed to know was that her
daughter was dealing with aliens and zombies in aside from being a teenager.

Luckily, Dib heeded my warning. "I mean, I've mostly read about stuff in the newspaper but I know the truth is out there."
"That's right, it is," said mom. "Just keep telling yourself that and you'll be sure to find what you're looking for. Would anyone like more water?" "I could use a little more after I down the rest of this." Dib said, holding up his almost empty glass.
"Sure thing, honey. I'll be right back with the pitcher," She stepped out of the dining room then her head reappeared in the door once again. "Oh Wendy, I almost forgot to mention while you were out yesterday, your friend Tak stopped by. She wants you to give her a call."

Suddenly Dib spat out the last of his water as he gaped at her in disbelief. "Tak?" he coughed. When mom had disappeared into the kitchen, he pulled me closer to him. "Wendy," he whispered. "How could you not tell me that Tak was here?"
My eyebrows shot up in surprise. "You know her?" "She's Irken! Years ago, she came to Earth to take over Zim's mission. She failed the first time but if she's back now then who knows what she's planning to do next? Don't you see it?
She's bad news, Wendy. She can't be trusted." As I stared off into shock, it finally dawned on me that maybe Zim hadn't been responsible for the zombie outbreak after all.