Disclaimer - All rights belong to Teletoon, Cartoon Network, and the creators of TDI. No profit is being made in the making of the fanfiction. This alternate-universe episode of TDI contains stunts performed by written teens. Please don't try any of this at home.
The Kobold Necromancer's Notes - The zombie violence here is seriously diminished, so this story will still be rated Teen. I still find it ironic how overly sensitive people are these days with kid cartoons. When I was growing up, Daffy Duck would literally have his face blown off, dynamite and laser guns were played with, and Disney characters were getting drunk off their butts.
Chapter 17 - Won't You Take Me To \music notes\ ZOMBIE TOWN?
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(Maclean Stadium)
"You mean I have to watch them the entire time?" Izzy exclaimed at the host of the show. "You can't put me back in there as a zombie or something?"
"Nope, sorry!"
Chris Maclean didn't sound or look sorry. In fact, with a big grin on his face, he looked the opposite of sorry. He continued to beam into her face as he said, "Very sorry, but you have to wait here until the game is over."
Izzy was hunched over, fists clenched, teeth bared. Chris was concerned she might actually pounce, but she managed to keep her temper. "Well, how about," she managed to ask, "if I just go in there to control my zombie?"
"Nope, it's already been destroyed."
Chris pressed a couple buttons on the console, and on a small screen nearby, Izzy saw a repeat of her zombie's demise. Owen, when leaving community hall, had seen the zombies come up after him, including his dead girlfriend's zombie. He screamed, and shoved her away, knocking her down the stairs again; the impact at the bottom destroyed Zombie Izzy's head.
Chris burst out laughing as Izzy growled, and the host managed to whimper out amid his cackles, "I'm... hehehehehe... sorry!"
(Janitor's Closet - Opposite of sorry is yrros.)
Izzy -\fuming and furious\ "Sitting out the entire game. I really, really am getting more mad with every passing moment. This is worse that the time I found out I couldn't be the Easter Bunny, or when I was banned from the sophomore dance, or when 4Kids got their hands on, well, any animé they ever butchered!
"Owen is so going to get it from me... if I don't take it out on Chris first."
Chris Maclean - \cackling\ "Did you see the look on her face? That's the kind of look I love, frustration and devastation! I'll tell you, I don't care how many complaints I get, just the look on her face was enough, and I am gonna film every minute of her agony!"
\There is a knock on the door, which confuses Chris. He opens the door to the Janitor's Closet, and a fist plows into his face, knocking him down. A flip of red hair can be seen before the film stops.\
(The Dawn, Bridgette and Cody)
Cody whimpered as he walked on a balance beam, trying his best not to fall. Panting hard, he looked down. "Still five stories to go," he said to himself, then paused and tapped his chin. "Or do you count the bottom floor?"
"What I don't get," Bridgette muttered as she walked in front of him, "is why the stairway or ladder down to the next floor is always at the opposite side? And there's no secure way to walk across any of these most of the time."
"Of course it doesn't make sense," Cody said with a shrug. "In video games, buildings are always built in ways that are very bizarre. Like the Resident Evil series."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, in Resident Evil, you need to place gems or coins into slots to open a door at a place like a police station or a lab room. Doesn't make much sense, does it... oh look out!"
A zombie was stumbling towards them on their beam. Bridgette bared her teeth and clenched the mallet she had picked up a few stories up. One heavy blow to its chest, and the ghoulish being stumbled back. That's all it need to do to fall off the beam and five stories down, hitting several beams along the way.
"Wicked hit, babe," Cody remarked, grinning in approval.
"Thanks. So, any idea which of those two girls you're going to date yet?"
Cody sighed. He didn't say anything until they started to climb down the ladder to the fourth floor. "I haven't made up my mind. And it's weird."
"That two girls are fighting over you?"
"Nah, I always knew that was possible," he boasted, puffing out his chest. Bridgette rolled her eyes but couldn't help smile at his behavior. "I just don't know exactly if I should choose just yet."
"Are you giving Eva any thought?"
"Of course I am. I just... I didn't think that she would be interested in me."
"Yeah, I was pretty surprised by that too," she said with a chuckle, then realized how rude that could sound. "Um, what I mean is that, I didn't know she was interested in you either."
They continued down the floors, the occasional zombie almost hitting them on the way down. At the bottom, zombies feasted on the remains of dead construction workers, including a Zombie Joel.
"Poor guy, died as he lived," Cody said. "Building stuff."
Bridgette and Cody dispatched the zombies with her mallet and his large wrench. Zombie Joel managed to grab Cody's shoulders, but the techgeek head butted him. With his hardhat on, the impact was enough to knock the zombie inventor away and for Cody to finish the job with his melee weapon.
"I hope the girls will see that," he said to Bridgette, tipping the brim of his hardhat, "because that was awesome."
(Janitor's Closet - Are you yrros?)
Bridgette - "Cody's a little arrogant, full of himself. He has all the confidence of someone who thinks he's a major player, but he's a softy deep down. Sweet and cool, but still with a few issues. Then again, he does have Eva and Anita fighting for him, so he's doing something right."
Cody - "Did you see that zombie kill I did with Joel's walking corpse? That was awesome! I head butted him like this!"
\He pulls his head butt and smashes it against the camera. It crashes to the ground and before it goes completely black, you hear:\ "Whoops!"
(The Dusk, Sakaki and Sebastian)
Sebastian was staring down a zombie as it slowly approached him. The philosopher made no notion to retreat, he just watched as it came closer and closer to him. Eventually, at its slow pace, it stepped on a silver 'X' made of duct tape on the floor. Right when it did, a TV fell from the second floor and splattered its head.
"Good shot, Sakaki," Sebastian called up to her.
"Thank you," she said from above, blushing slightly. "Are we going to leave this mall soon, Sebastian?"
"I'd rather take the precautions method of eliminating all those outside the main doors," he replied. Correcting his glasses, he said, "Interesting that they're the only ones not barricaded."
"Probably has to do with the game or something like that," she replied. "I mean, it would be too easy if we could just walk out of here."
"Good point. Say, you're rather communicative today."
"It's," she stammered slightly, but managed to say, "it's much easier to talk to people when you're a floor away from them."
Sebastian hummed in thought, then walked outside again. Some nearby zombies, including Zombie Heather and Zombie Carol, were alerted, and started shamble after him.
"Got about ten of them," he called out as he walked back into the mall, "including a mall-dweller and a mall cop!"
"I'm out of televisions up here!"
"Improvise, my dear Sakaki!"
Sebastian waited for the zombies to come after him, patiently watching them stumble towards him. One was taken out by a potted plant dropped from above, another by a CD rack. Sebastian raised an eyebrow as the following fell onto the zombie heads, some killing them and some not: a trash bin, a dictionary, a Hawaiian shirt, a pet carrier case, a coffee mug, a two-liter bottle of soda, a chair, binoculars, a soccer ball, and a kitchen sink.
The philosopher blinked at the last one, but before he could say anything, Zombie Heather approached him. With a swift, sweeping kick, he took her out. Zombie Carol was destroyed with a computer from Sakaki.
"Good job there, Sakaki! Where'd you find the kitchen sink?"
"Actually, there's a Kitchen Sink 'R Us store up here!"
Sebastian quirked an eyebrow, then shrugged. "It is a mall, after all."
(Janitor's Closet - We're yrros if you don't like the joke.)
Sakaki - "I really do like being Sebastian's partner. He fills me a confidence that I rarely ever get, and I guess I really would need during a zombie apocalypse. He was the one who suggested I stay on the second floor, and dropping things on the zombies was a little fun!"
Sebastian - "Sakaki still lacks a lot of self-confidence, but she's slowly but surely getting it. I wouldn't recommend a reality show for curing shyness, and probably not going to a mall either. Sometimes I think the mall is dangerous with or without zombies."
(The Dawn, Beth and Carol)
Beth bashed at a zombie with her branch, but since it was mostly leaves, she wasn't doing any damage. Nevertheless, she continued to pound at it with futility, much like the flogging of a dead horse (only difference it was a dead human). Carol, who had picked up a gun from a dead police officer, rolled her eyes and blew the zombie away.
"See Beth, you have to go for some strong force there," she said, grinning excitedly. "Zombies cannot be swatted."
"I'm just not good with guns," Beth admitted. "Is there anything else I can use?"
Carol looked around, then saw a zombie hobo lying against a wall in the park. With a couple bullets, she dispatched the homeless ghoul, then picked up the bottle of booze it had been clutching in undeath. She also snatched up the newspapers he had been sleeping under.
"Now this is a molotov," Carol pointed out to Beth. "You stuff the newspaper halfway in the flammable liquid, light it on fire, then throw it."
"Is it safe?"
"Oh hell no, one of the most dangerous weapons one can use."
Beth's horrified reaction was not noticed by the enthusiastic girl, who juggled the bottle in one hand. "Yes, this is a popular weapon for rioters. Rioters are scum bags, you know, they vandalize and loot, and then blame problems on society. If they didn't trash society, maybe it would be better."
As she talked, she noticed a small group of zombies coming at them. She recognized zombies of Sakaki and Daisy, and raised her eyebrow. "Well then, let's put this new weapon to good use."
She stuck the end of the newspaper in the trash can fire the hobo had been keeping warm by. "Now you need to be careful, Beth," she lectured as she turned to her. "Molotovs will burn this park down, so we must wait until they're on concrete. In about a few seconds, they'll be here on the sidewalk with us.
"You should also know," she continued, in full police-lecture now, "that a molotov splashes, so we should put ourselves at a good distance from the zombies in case some of the burning liquid hits us."
She noticed that Beth was sprinting away as fast her little legs could take her. Carol scowled in annoyance, and said, "Not that far, Beth!"
Carol noticed Beth was also screaming in terror, and she shrugged and said, "Well, might as well throw this no-"
That was as far as she got, because the burning newspaper made inside the bottle. Beth had noticed this, and, unable to alert Carol by waving her hands frantically and shaking her head, took off running. A violent burst of fire and glass ended Carol's time in the game.
She was lucky enough that the fire caught all the approaching zombies on fire and finished them off.
(Janitor's Closet - What a dangerous drink.)
Carol - \deadpan stare at the camera, then face palms\ "Doh!"
Beth - "Carol's cool and all, but she really needs to remember how dangerous fire is, and it is, you know, really dangerous and hot and such. But if you want to look at it a positive way, she did take out the zombies, and prevented herself from being a zombie!" \She giggles and snorts.\
(The Dusk, Howard and Joel)
"So how are you and Hannah getting along?" Howard asked Joel. He swung at a zombie with a hockey stick, knocking it aside. He proceeded to smash its head in as he waited for an answer.
"Fine, I guess," Joel replied casually, jamming his crowbar into the eye of another zombie. Yanking his tool out from the ghoul, he asked, "Why you wanna know?"
"Well, it just seems like you might want some advice from someone who knows the ladies."
"You know dude, I don't mean to be rude," the inventor said as Howard hooked another zombie's foot to trip it, "but you haven't been exactly making the best impressions on the ladies here."
"Aw c'mon, Belinda likes me," he protested, bashing another zombie's head in.
"You and her barely talk," Joel commented, hurling a wrench at an approaching ghoul's head.
"Well, when we do start talking, I guarantee that things will pick up very quickly," Howard said, wiggling his eyebrows. Three zombies approached him, and he knocked them away with a wide cleave. "You wanna bet that she and I will be making out by, oh, the end of next-"
"I don't make bets like that, dude," the inventor replied, sounding a little irked as he shone a flashlight down a dark alleyway. He saw a zombie that would have caught him off guard in the dark, but Joel used his crowbar to cave in its head. "You should know Belinda's more respectable than that."
"Dude, I have all the respect for women in the world," Howard replied. He lifted his hockey stick and crushed a lady zombie's skull. "Belinda is special, and I would be honored if she wanted to make out with me."
"Then why are you placing bets?"
"Because I believe if you don't plan yourself, you run the risk of her thinking you're not truly interested in you. You should plan yourself with your girl, especially since she's religious."
"What's that mean?" Joel asked, scowling. Howard would have answered, but the inventor was approached by two zombies. Cleaves and strikes from hockey stick and crowbar left a bloody, brain-splattered mess.
"It means that she probably believes in abstinence, you know? She cannot kiss until she's married."
"That's not what abstinence means, dude."
"Really?"
"Yeah, that's ridiculous."
"I'm guessing Christian girls don't wear chain link chastity belts too?"
Joel lightly bonked his crowbar against Howard's forehead. "Dude, no. Where on earth did you hear that?"
"Wikipedia."
(Janitor's Closet - Wikipedia, where people make yrroses.)
Joel - "Howard's a little annoying, since he thinks he knows it all but really doesn't. I'll take my pace with Hannah how I want, but even as irritating as his advice is, at least he's a good wing man for a zombie apocalypse."
Howard - "Joel was really cool, he wired a car up to be a bomb and blew away a large group of zombies that were coming at us! It was actually really weird, discussing our love lives during a zombie apocalypse. Bashing in zombie heads and discussing first base with girls, I never thought I would be doing both at the same time!"
(The Dawn, Arthur and Courtney)
The two hadn't said much to each other since they had left the restaurant. Armed with a frying pan and a cleaver, the two were leaving a trail of zombies with mutilated heads. The loner could practically sense Courtney saving up a speech, and about halfway to the hospital, she launched it.
"Look, I've noticed that you've always been sitting alone," she remarked, and he rolled his eyes. "You cannot win this by being alone, you'll be picked off as an extra."
"I haven't offended anyone yet," Arthur said casually, shrugging his shoulders.
"You're not listening to me, I said 'extra.' You'll be regarded as a throwaway contestant, and people won't think twice about disregarding you."
Arthur rolled his eyes again, then noticed Zombie Owen approaching them. Raising an eyebrow, he muttered, "Hey fat boy, eat this!"
He pulled the cleaver behind his head, then flung it tomahawk style. Imbedding into Zombie Owen's skull, the very big zombie hit the ground and caused a mini-tremor. Car alarms set off over, almost drowning out Arthur's laughing.
"Did you see that?" he asked Courtney, laughing. "That was, like, the greatest kill I've ever seen!"
Now it was Courtney's turn to roll her eyes, not amused and annoyed by all the alarms going off. "Yes, very funny, Arthur. Now c'mon, stop fooling around so we-"
She stopped when she saw several zombies coming towards them, then a semi-large swarm of them. Courtney turned around to start retreating, then saw zombies were approaching from behind.
"Damn it, we're surrounded," she shouted, her fingers tightening on the handle of her frying pan. Her voice cracked with hysteria. "You called them here, you set off the car alarms."
"Dang, I guess I did, didn't I?" Arthur commented. He looked around, then noticed some buildings nearby. Grabbing her wrist, he pulled her towards the closet one. Just barely missing the grasping hands of the zombies, they ducked into the building. Still the zombies came, and Arthur slammed the door on them. Several bashes from the door knocked most of them away, but one peeked its head in to snap its teeth at the two.
Courtney screamed and kicked the door, pushing it with all her strength. The door wedged on the zombie's head, and it burst like a moldy cantaloupe, smelling worse. As Courtney closed the door all the way, Arthur chuckled.
"Now that was one of the greatest kills I've ever seen."
"We're trapped in here now," she snapped at him.
"No we ain't. We head for the roof, then we travel by rooftop until we're close to the hospital."
"What makes you sure that'll work?"
"It's a VR campaign, they probably have every building be a pathway of some kind. They wouldn't spend the time to make buildings with no point to them."
Courtney sighed, then shrugged. "Fine, whatever. Let's just go. And you need to get a new weapon fast, mister."
(Janitor's Closet - Part of a very important building indeed.)
Courtney - "Arthur is a little annoying, but not so much as, well, Duncan can be. He's calm, he's collected, and he'd be an excellent addition to an alliance. I am sure he could help me out, with his strong attitude and astute observations."
Arthur - \rolling his eyes\ "Man, Courtney is so much more annoying than I thought she would be."
(The Dusk, Katie and Noah)
"We're almost out of here, Katie," Noah remarked. "According to this map, we are here, and the front entrance of the school, which is closest to the docks, is only a few more classrooms away."
"That's great, but there's one thing I want to know."
"What's that?"
"How's the map know where we are?"
She giggled, looking at him for a reaction. All she got was a raised eyebrow. "Clever," he said, then motioned for her to follow. She sighed in defeat.
"Noah, how come you don't laugh at my jokes?"
"I'm just a little short on patience, Katie, because we haven't found a decent weapon. We've ruined three textbooks, six chairs, a yardstick, several paperweights, a potted plant, a desk, and a few test tubes. We're wreckign this place making a weapon out of everything."
"Yeah, and they're worried about us bringing nail files to school," she commented, giggling. When he didn't reply, she added, "Maybe we could beat them to death with our lunch boxes."
"If you'll notice, Katie, I'm still not laughing."
"Right, right," she said with a sigh.
They continued to walk until, in front of a classroom, Katie spoke up again. "With the drinking fountains?"
Noah couldn't help but laugh. "Oh man, you win."
"I try," she said, twirling a strand of hair around her finger.
The window to the classroom shattered, and zombies, including undead Cody and Harold, reached out and grabbed her. She didn't even get a chance to scream as they pulled her into the classroom.
Noah screamed too, and desperately looked around for a weapon. A fire hydrant behind a glass case was the only thing available. He kicked the glass, shattering it, and claimed his weapon. Rushing back to the classroom, he swung the red cylinder down on the zombies' heads. Zombie Cody's teeth were all knocked out, and Zombie Harold's neck was broken along with his glasses.
Panting heavily, Noah shoved the dead bodies off his girlfriend. Katie's body was mauled, her eyes staring up lifelessly. The bookworm was frozen in horror, unable to believe that she was dead. Only the moan from her corpse snapped him from his shock, and a heavy blow from the hydrant kept her from ever rising up again.
"No," Noah cried, gripping his hair. "No no no... I couldn't keep her alive! And worse, I was betrayed by my fellow nerds!"
(Janitor's Closet - Brain food.)
Noah - "At that part, I felt like I had ultimately failed. I let my girlfriend die, I was poorly armed, and I was still a good distance from the docks. If only it was a game, I could reset, but no."
Katie - "Noah won't admit it, but he really feels awkward around others. So without me, he must have been nervous that the others would gang up on him. It must be, like, so lousy being the youngest of nine; I cannot even begin to imagine how crowded that bathroom must have felt."
(The Dawn, Colin and Geoff)
The two young men walked down the street, getting the hungriest looks from zombies that wanted to eat. Colin had equipped a sledgehammer, and was pulping zombie heads. Geoff had taken the more subtle approach of equipping two pistols and shooting zombie brains out.
"Why can't I have one of those, man?" Colin growled.
"Well dude, you are holding a sledgehammer, that takes two hands," Geoff commented. "Unless you want one, we share the guns?"
"No way, I love this," Colin remarked, lifting it over his head. "I love this challenge."
"It's a lot of fun, isn't it?" the party animal agreed. He looked up and added, "Hey dude, the hospital is nearby."
"Do we really need to go there now?" he griped. "I'm having a lot of fun pasting zombies."
"Well dude, it's where we need to go."
"And I suppose you're a goody two-shoes who does everything asked of him?"
"No way, man! You're right, let's have some fun!"
They spent some time killing more zombies. Geoff found that sniping zombies was incredibly fun, and Colin was on a hunt for several of the special zombies. In the time they wasted killing zombies, Colin wiped out the zombie versions of Xander, Izzy, Tyler, and Jasmine.
"Where are all of them?" Colin grumbled after a while. "We've spent about a half-hour here, and I haven't seen any more dead contestants."
"Maybe there are no more around here," Geoff commented, reloading his guns.
"Then let's go hunting for some more!"
"Dude, we really should head to the hospital."
"I see," Colin snapped, "chickening out?"
"No way, dude! I just think that if we head there, we'll find more."
"You just want to end this challenge so you can go back to making out with your girlfriend. Not that I blame you, she's hot and all."
"She sure is," Geoff boasted.
The party animal started to babble about how great she was, mentioning a few things that he really shouldn't ("She has the softest boobs," "She whimpers when I lick in her ear," "There's the cutest birthmark just above her butt"). Colin got sick of hearing it pretty quickly, but then he saw a mob of zombies coming at them from behind Geoff. Looking to the side, he saw a flicker of someone with blond hair; this was too good to miss.
"Hey, Geoff," he said, pointing at the person with the blond ponytail approaching, "is that Bridgette?"
"Where where?" Geoff exclaimed, looking where Colin was pointing. While distracted, Colin stood in position...
"Hey, Bridgette," Colin called out, and then shoved Geoff with one hand at the zombies. As the party animal was violently mauled to virtual death, Colin grinned wickedly at the blond girl. Then his face fell.
(Janitor's Closet - That wasn't very nice, was it?)
Colin - "Turned out not to be Bridgette, but a zombie of Lindsay. What a waste of a good joke, because if she had seen her boyfriend be shoved into zombies, that would've been hilarious."
Geoff - "I'm sure Colin accidentally bumped me, is all. I'm sure he isn't as cruel as some of the others make him out to be, just a little harsh. We're all cool deep down, that's my way of looking at things."
Colin - "So I crushed the Lindsay zombie's head, and then I played soccer with Geoff's head to keep him from coming back. Then I drew on his face with a magic marker, and snicker-snagged on it, and..."
(The Dusk, Sadie and Yoshi)
"There's too many of them," Sadie screamed. Having lost her hammer, she had armed herself with a shovel, but that wasn't enough to fend off all the zombies.
"Damn cannibal monsters," Yoshi snarled as he hacked at the ghouls, decapitating and scalping as best he could.
They had not been able to advance in the warehouse, as the zombies kept coming. The closer they got to the door, the more zombies came pouring through it. Retreating back only brought the swarm hunting after them.
"Are they all here for us?" he asked.
"That's rather mean of them, selecting us-"
"That was rhetoric, Sadie!"
"Oh sorry!"
Yoshi growled and wiped the blood away from his face. "There has to be some kind of trick to this!"
Sadie slammed her shovel against a zombie, and the blade of it stuck in the monster's head. Sighing, she grabbed the nearest weapon, a two by four, and broke it over another zombie's head. "I'm getting really tired, Yoshi. We'll never make it to the docks at this rate."
Yoshi nodded, taking a deep breath. As he tried to calm himself down, he heard something that he had managed to miss until now: the sound of the ocean.
"Wait a minute," he muttered to himself. He and Sadie, her slightly confused, headed back into the warehouse. Yoshi was searching frantically for something, and Sadie's curiosity threshold (about half a minute) was breached for when she needed an answer.
"What are we looking for?" she asked as she picked up the nearest weapon, a chopping ax, that she could find. She silently blessed their luck for being in a warehouse full of construction supplies.
"The ladder up to the roof."
"Why?"
"I think we're already at the docks, but the VR campaign is keeping us from walking out the front door. Aha," he exclaimed as he opened a door. "Here it is! Climb on up, Sadie-san."
"Okay! You're really smart."
"I'm more," he said, "of a strategist."
"Um, Yoshi?"
"Yes?"
"Maybe I should have gone first."
"Why?"
"I can see up your skirt!"
"It's not a skirt," he protested. "It's a..."
Yoshi had arrived at the top of the ladder, onto the roof, and saw all the zombies up there. They looked at him in one collective sweep of their rotten heads, and he let slip a very bad word. Under him, Sadie gasped, and said, "Well, that's actually a really bad word in English..."
"Zombies," Yoshi growled as he pulled himself up and unsheathed his sword. The zombies approached, and he cleaved at them without mercy. When Sadie arrived on top of the roof too, she swung her ax around and getting almost as many as them.
"It doesn't even make sense how this many zombies could be on a roof," Sadie exclaimed.
"Stop trying to find logic in this," Yoshi barked, "and keep on fighting-"
His sword broke when he tried to slice one of the zombie's brains out. Repeating that word that's very bad in English, he found himself being surrounded by zombies. Jamming his broken blade into one, he went after them, fists and feet flying.
Sadie saw him sinking under the attacks, and she panicked. She came charging at them, cleaving and hacking with her ax. Her determination gave her blind fury, and she ignored her own injuries and the gore of zombies. She even missed, "Ow! You hit me with that thing, Sadie!"
After a couple minutes of violence, Sadie had managed to kill all the zombies on the roof. Heaving, she looked down at Yoshi, who was laying down. Bloody and badly injured, the young warrior was unable to even stand.
"Are you gonna be okay?" Sadie asked, studying his wounds.
"Not likely."
"You in much pain?"
"No, this VR stuff just gives me numbness. Guess Joel planned that so this couldn't torture us," he groaned. "Just give me a couple minutes, then I should be able to-"
He was cut off when he heard moaning coming up from the warehouse. Zombies were climbing the ladder, filing onto the roof. Yoshi snarled, and said, "Oh, for \the bad word that apparently means skirt in Japanese\ sake!"
"They're still coming?" Sadie whimpered. "D-don't worry, Yoshi! I'll take care of them."
"No," he snapped. Wiping blood away from his eyes, he growled, "You get down to the docks, and get ready to prepare the evacuation."
"But you... you-"
"Am covered in wounds and cannot even stand," he finished for her. "Just go, I'll hold them off as long as I can."
Sadie swallowed, then handed him her ax. "Use this as a crutch if you survive."
He smirked. "I was wrong about you, you know. You're tougher than I thought, and I know you can make this."
"Eeeeeee, thank you! Wouldn't I be a good girlfriend?"
"Possibly. I am the wrong person to ask, I'm interested in someone else."
"Eeeeeeeeee! It's Daisy, right?"
"Just go already!"
Yoshi sighed as she ran away, heading for the stairway on the side of the building. Yoshi got to his knees and stared down the zombies lumbering towards him.
"Bring it on."
(Janitor's Closet - Well, WAS it Daisy?)
Sadie - "Ever since Carol and Crystal and I talked about it, I've been anxious to see what guys here would like me. I'm a little scared, because so many are taken. But I do like tough, dangerous guys, and there seem to be a few of those left."
Yoshi - \holding his katana blade, looking at it emotionally\ "Don't ever break on me." \He starts swinging it around for a few practice swings, and accidentally slices the camera. Before it dies, you hear him say, "Oops."\
(The Dawn, Gwen and Harold)
"And then," Harold said to Gwen, "there was this one time, at magic camp-"
"Harold," Gwen shouted, having lost her patience a couple floors ago, "I! Do! Not! Care!"
"Gosh," he replied, then shrugged. "So, Gwen, how are you doing?"
"I'd be doing better if you'd keep your mouth shut," she growled. "Honestly, Harold, you have to talk to me every time we are grouped together. Just for once, can't you leave me alone?"
"Gosh, Gwen! It's a zombie survival game, we have to communicate."
"No, we don't!"
She kicked at a nearby door, breaking the lock. When it swung open, both were startled to see what was in there: a large armory of guns. Gwen's eyes bulged when she saw the shotguns.
"I don't believe this," she said. "We've found the mother load!"
"Wonder what all these guns are here for," Harold mused. "You don't need guns for a bell tower... oh."
"What is oh?"
Harold held up a tommy gun. "Looks like the mafia hid out here."
The moan of a zombie alerted them, and a zombie dressed in a thick trench coat and an Italian hat came after them. Gwen lifted a shotgun and blew it away completely.
"Lousy stereotypes," Harold remarked. "Joel's a smart guy, but must he make the undead mob former Italians? Stereotyping is wrong."
He looked at the collection of guns, and looked back at Gwen with a smile. "Shotgun for me too? I've had experience firing them in Possum Scouts and use them all the time when I play video games."
"Take whatever you want, I don't care."
Gwen grabbed two sawed-off shotguns, then stuffed her pockets and her bra with shells. When Harold noticed how lumpy her chest looked and couldn't stop staring, she glared at him.
"Interesting place to put ammo," he commented, chuckling.
"Keep looking and you join the zombies."
"Gosh, I'm only kidding!"
They were quiet for a few minutes, at least as far as words go. Both were using shotguns to kill the zombies of the mob that had used the bell tower as a base, and Harold was very much enjoying destroying the mafia. Gwen didn't look amused, even when holding two shotguns and reducing zombie heads to red mist (and who wouldn't enjoy doing that, huh?).
"Gwen," he finally said, making her groan in frustration at having to listen to him again, "what's wrong?"
"Nothing is wrong, except that you won't stop talking to me."
"Well, it's just that you've been really, like, cranky ever since this contest started."
"I don't want to be here, you know that."
"But you're with friends. Leshawna says you've been cranky, even around her."
Gwen sighed and looked away from him, continuing to walk forward with her eyes focused on the ground. Harold, though he half-felt it was wrong, continued. "You know, I know you and I aren't really friends and all, but we do have a connection because of Leshawna, and I know how to talk to girls. So while we blast zombies together, why don't you tell me what's bothering you?"
Gwen bristled, then turned around. "Listen Harold," she snapped, her dark eyes narrowing, "I want you to get something straight. I'm nobody's friend here, okay? I may get along with some people, but that would never last in the real world.
"As far as I'm concerned, I should have never signed up for this show. My problems have only got worse, and the last thing I'm going to do is share them with you, or anyone else here. Because no one here can help, and I don't want them to! So please, just leave me be, okay Harold?"
She glared at him as he stared her in startled surprise. Before she could add anything more, he pointed behind her back and mouthed a few words in warning, his voice catching in his throat. Gwen turned to see a zombie hitman coming at her, rather close.
She lifted one of her shotguns, but the zombie lunged first. When it knocked her down, the shot went over her head. Receiving a couple bites from the monster, she managed to shove it off, then blew its head off. Sighing and rubbing her shoulder, bleeding but feeling no pain, she muttered, "Damn. Good thing it's not like a normal zombie invasion, right Harold?"
There was no answer. "Harold?" she repeated, then looked around. Her eyes widened in shock.
When she had been knocked down by the zombie, her wild shot had taken out Harold. She face palmed and let out a familiar bad word (which is weird, because she doesn't know Japanese).
(Janitor's Closet - Why's it called "friendly" fire?)
Harold - "I know Gwen didn't mean to do that, but still, if she wasn't so mad at me, I would've still been in the game, most likely. I am used to putting up with crabby girls, I have a sister."
Gwen - \sighing\ "I may have been too strong when I was in that game, but frankly, I hate being on this show very much right now. I think the only thing keeping me going is that I want to win, just to rub it in Chris Maclean's face. And Heather's. And Courtney's.
"Boy, I've made myself a little enemies' list, haven't I?" \She chuckles, then sighs miserably.\ "I guess Harold's now part of that list, he must be really irked at me. Not that I can blame him."
(The Dusk - Trent and Valerie)
"Look, I'm not one to judge," Valerie said as the two walked down the street, "but Gwen isn't being really open this season."
"What do you mean?" Trent asked, raising his eyebrows in concern.
"Please, you have to have noticed," she scoffed. "I saw her at breakfast today. Oh, and every day she's been here."
Trent bristled a little, but thinking back, he realized she could be right. Her snapping at him during the first car race, especially grumpy in the mornings and at the start of challenges...
"Oh, and I've gone back and watched the show, to see who's doing what and such," Valerie continued. "Gwen is snapping at all her teammates, and she's really ticking off her roommates."
Valerie knew it was a grand exaggeration, but Trent didn't know that. He replied, "Wait, you mean, Geoff, Hannah, and Ezekiel?"
"Yeah, she's offending Hannah, and she's really nasty towards Ezekiel. Which is easy to see, since he's dating the girl she hates most."
Trent sighed, taking a pause in the conversation to bash in a zombie's head with a tire iron. "Why are you telling me this?"
"Why else? I want to help you out, you were one of my favorite contestants to watch."
"Though I've deny that, since I cannot," she thought, "for the life of me understand why you want to date that ugly goth."
"Thank you, I guess," Trent said, wiping the blood off his weapon with a rag. "But still, what are you going to do?"
"Easy. You and Gwen should work together with me."
Trent looked at her unsteadily. "Gee, Valerie, I don't know. 'Alliances' have been cast in a really ugly shadow since Heather betrayed Beth and Lindsay in TDI."
"I know that, and I know the risk offering it to you is," she said. "But the problem here is with you and Gwen, especially her. You see, slowly but surely, she's pissing off everyone. And she's done well both seasons, people are getting sick of her.
"So Trent, if you two work with me," she said, smiling at him as she propped her fireman's ax on her shoulder, "I will do everything I can to make sure you two make it as long as I can."
Trent scratched the back of his head. "I'll... I'll think about it. And... and um..."
He looked distracted, looking around the street as if trying to find something. Valerie looked around too, and asked, "Do you hear something?"
"No, that's the problem."
"What? What do you mean?"
"I don't hear... anything."
Valerie slowly realized what he meant. No sound came from the city around them, no moans of zombies, no screams or all the trimmings that a good zombie-infested city has. She opened her mouth to say something, and was cut off by the bay of hundreds of zombies.
Creeping out of alleyways, bursting down through doors, climbing up from the sewers, and coming from both sides of the street, Trent and Valerie were suddenly surrounded by the shambling ghouls.
"Damn it all, a planned ambush," Trent exclaimed, gripping his tire iron.
"Zombies cannot plan," Valerie shrieked. "These monsters were programmed to ambush here!"
The two were frozen as the undead swarmed around them, closing in. Valerie saw the last available opening in front of her, and bolted for it. "Run, Trent," she exclaimed. "Run! Zombies can't run!"
She charged forward, swinging at the zombies around the opening with incredible force. Her ax decapitated, cleaved, sliced, diced, and made ghoulish fries.
Trent wasn't so lucky, and was grabbed by several zombies. Valerie turned around to see him being wrestled to the ground, blood spurting everywhere. She winced horribly, then cupped her hands around her mouth.
"Sorry, Trent," she called out, "but think about that alliance, will you? For Gwen, think about Gwen!"
She ran off, unaware that Zombie Gwen was helping tearing Trent apart.
(Zombie Janitor's Closet)
Valerie - "Not the best way to recruit new members, I'll have to admit. Still, it was a zombie apocalypse, what was I supposed to do? You cannot have city meetings or campaigns, zombies don't organize and they don't donate."
Trent - "Okay, Valerie may not be very trustworthy... but she is right. Gwen's been more and more snappish, as much as I want to help her, I don't think I get through to her until the others vote her off without giving her a chance. What is bothering her..."
(The Dawn, Anita and Crystal)
"A few people have been telling me that Eva is no competition, including a few of my friends back home via texting," Anita said to Crystal, talking as she checked the ammunition for her pistol, "but I really don't think that's true."
"Why?"
"Eva is... rather stunning in a sense, I don't have a good word for it right now," she said, pushing the magazine back in. "She's confident, she's strong and self-assured. She definitely has her career and future set out for her, and she is beautiful."
"Oh, I don't know about that, she's way too cranky and rude for me to think that, eh wot."
"I actually meant physically. At least I think she is, though I know some people disagree," Anita holstered her gun and fiddled with her broom handle. "Eva is, when she isn't clenching her fists or growling, rather attractive."
"You think so?" Crystal scratched the back of her head, looking around for any peculiar movement. She was fiddling with her cricket bat at the same time Anita was, and was trying to wipe the smeared brains and blood with a rag, but it wasn't working.
"I personally think," the romantic continued, "that her attitude and rather antisocial attitude are what cause me to think she's not up to snuff for Cody. You're much better, you appreciate electronics and listen to him."
"Oh, she listens to him, trust me on that," Anita replied. "I'm just worried that I'm coming across as the crazed fan girl. You know, the most dangerous being on the planet?"
"Nah, that's British soccer hooligans," Crystal joked. "Seriously, why do you think you're coming off poorly? Surely you haven't said anything to offend him."
"I don't know, I really don't. I mean, I can flirt and tease, but I've never really shown true affection for a guy I wanted," Anita said, then sighed. "Serves me right."
"Oh, you're seventeen, you've got time to practice."
"When do you think I don't have time anymore?"
"When you're dead."
Crystal laughed and propped her bat behind her head. "You see, Anita love, young love has a lot of complications, since we're still growing up and not sure how the world or even we work. So if things are awkward, it's normal."
The beauty nodded as the romantic looked up at the starry sky and said, "And that's why even during the most crappy of situations to an match seemingly made in heaven, you always have to put your best effort forward. Because you're aiming for the most important thing, and that is someone's heart."
Anita sniffed, wiping a tear in her eye away. "You're so poetic. How do you do it?"
"Beats me, I don't even know how I work yet, eh wot."
They laughed, and when Anita's louder laughter echoed across the street, Crystal noted the silence. "Oh, rapture, the moans have stopped," Crystal said. "Now Anita, you're a smart girl. You're the one who suggested we explore that strip joint, and found you a gun and a weapon."
"Just the janitor's closet and the owner's office was all," Anita said, modestly shrugging. "Though it was satisfying to bash that dead creep's head in with a broom handle."
"Bloody satisfying, that was. Now... oh buggar."
Crystal and Anita froze when they noticed zombies were approaching them in a huge swarm from in front. They turned around and saw the zombies approaching from the behind, and the sides too. They were trapped, and with no opening.
"Blimey," Crystal whispered, "we've got some hard lines, eh wot."
"I don't know what that means," Anita whimpered as she pointed her gun at the zombies desperately, "but if it means we're screwed, I agree."
"Get the broom ready, Anita. We're thrashing these sods."
Crystal's accent was getting thicker, as she hunched over and tightened her grip on her cricket bat.
(Zombie Janitor's Closest wants brains!)
Crystal - "I vowed never to be one of those useless women in movies who aren't there for anything but a shag for the male character. So I took karate, and my instructor gave me a few lessons on weapon combat."
Anita - "Crystal's slang does get a little confusing at times, but she's such a wonderful person, you overlook that. That, and her..." \she chuckles\ "rather violent side. Whatever combat training she took, I want a couple lessons in that."
Crystal let out a combat cry, and charged forward. Cricket bat cleaved and smashed zombie heads, as did a broom handle. Anita cocked her gun and shot a couple zombies in the head.
"Smashing good job at smashing zombies," Crystal boomed. A zombie grabbed her from behind, but she managed to elbow it off. Several more gripped her, and she fought aggressively.
"Oh shoot man, no no no," Anita shrieked in terror, stopping to shoot the zombies off of Crystal. The shorter gal was lashing out with her fists and feet, batting the zombies away from her but not killing any.
Anita's gun clicked empty, but her fear caused her to pull the trigger repeatedly without realizing this. Crystal sustained bites to her neck and shoulders, and though blood was coming out, the romantic wasn't letting it get her down.
"Get out of here," she shouted to her friend, jamming her cricket bat into a zombie's mouth.
"No, I'm not leaving you," Anita replied, quickly loading another magazine into her gun. She tried to prod one zombie off Crystal with her broom handle, but it snapped and a zombie gripped her shoulder.
Crystal shoved herself off a zombie and used the momentum to knock Anita away from the swarm of undead. Anita was knocked off her feet after stumbling backwards, and all she could hear was her friend sinking under the attacks of the zombies, screaming obscene British insults ("wankers," "sods," "stupid gits," "oh, you're a lady zombie, you slapper").
Anita winced when she heard bones snapping, though she started to realize after hearing enough of them that it was probably Crystal (especially since a zombie head twisted off bounced by her); however, her friend's violent stand did not last long, and soon she couldn't hear anyone fighting back.
Sobbing silently, Anita couldn't bring herself to stand up. Only when saliva dripped onto her head was she able to shake her grief, and looked up to see a zombie drooling over her. Glaring at the monster, she pointed her fully loaded gun up at the zombie's chin and blew it's brains out via there.
Anita pulled herself up to her feet and ran off, silently mourning her friend's death (and a little envious, since Crystal had taken out more zombies back there than Anita had up until now in the game).
(The Dusk - Lindsay and Tyler)
After escaping from the lighthouse, Lindsay and Tyler went from really bad to really worse, really quickly. Poor Lindsay didn't know the physics of zombies, so she didn't know bisected zombies were still living.
The zombie, crawling up from behind her when she casually passed it, snatched her foot and bit into her ankle. As it was a virtual reality world, Lindsay felt no pain, but the numbness in her foot crippled her all the same. Kicking at the zombie's head with her free foot, she desperately tried to free herself. A very strong punt from her boyfriend knocked the zombie cranium away; it soared and hit the side of a building, splattering into a gooey mess.
Lindsay looked at her chewed-up ankle and whimpered. "Eww," she remarked, "I am going to have to get a new pair of boots, because blood will never come out of this leather!"
"Can you walk, babe?" Tyler asked her.
"Yes," she said as she stood up, and then promptly fall back down as her leg refused to stand. Tyler caught her, and she whimpered. "Um, the game's not letting me use my ankle."
"Probably because of the damage," Tyler said, unable to think of another explanation. He wasn't very knowledgeable with technology, but a mutilated ankle was clear enough to him that his girlfriend wasn't walking. He handed her the hockey stick he had using as a weapon, and picked her up.
"Why are you carrying me like a bride, Tyler?" she asked him. "And shouldn't I be carrying flowers, not a hockey stick?"
"It's just until we get to the docks, beautiful," he told her. "Once there, I'll keep you safe until our rescue comes."
"You're so sweet," she cooed. "I always did want to go on a cruise for my wedding."
Tyler chuckled, then when he turned a corner, he froze in his tracks. A large gathering of zombies were collected in the street, picking away at some corpses. Some of them had already turned to see Tyler and Lindsay. Muttering a bad word, Tyler darted down an alleyway.
"It might take us longer to get there if we have to go around," he told Lindsay, "but we cannot fight all of those undead freaks, especially with you in your condition."
"It's just a wedding dress," Lindsay commented, "It's not that uncomfortable... oh, wait, I'm not wearing it yet."
Tyler skidded on the pavement when he reached a dead-end. The chain link fence with barbed wire at the top would be impossible to get through. He cursed again, and Lindsay tsk-tsked him. "You shouldn't swear on our wedding so much, Tyler."
"Not getting married, Lindsay babe, we're trapped."
(Zombie Janitor's Closet settles for chicken nuggets.)
Tyler - "Lindsay is wonderful, how she can stay calm during dangerous situations. Still, I've never known her to get quite confused, thinking I was taking her to our wedding... maybe the game simulates shock when damage is taken."
Lindsay - \doing her nails\ "If Tyler and I were to get married, Bertha would have to be our best lady, and he can have my dad as the best man! Or is my dad supposed to give me away? I don't think so, because my dad once said if any guy tried to marry me, he'd only be giving him a concussion, whatever that is."
He set Lindsay down behind some trash cans and hid behind them too. Zombie moans and footsteps could be heard down the alleyways, but if they were getting closer was too hard to tell. Lindsay swallowed nervously, and asked Tyler, "If they find us, what do we do?"
"We kill every last one of them," he replied with a scowl. A couple zombies had just walked into view, and they headed right down their alleyway. "Damn it, they somehow followed us."
"Zombies have GPS navigators?!" Lindsay asked, gasping in surprise. "Oh no, my dad has one of those, and he can find anything with it!"
Tyler would have replied, but then several more zombies rounded the corner, then a whole crowd of them. The jock blanched, losing all color in his face. Lindsay saw this too, but her make-up kept her from going completely colorless.
"Are we dead?" she whimpered.
"Just stay there, and if any get too close," Tyler instructed as he lifted a trash can lid up as a shield, "hit them in the head."
Lindsay nodded, and the two watched as the zombies approached, slowly and moaning hungrily. The two teens shivered, armed only with a hockey stick and a trash can lid.
(The Dawn, DJ and Eva)
"I cannot believe someone threw away a perfectly good spear," Eva remarked, grinning at her weapon. She impaled her twenty-seventh zombie through the head that day, and beamed at it again. "Who knew the dump would be full of such awesome weapons."
"Like contraband city," DJ muttered, holding a chipped machete in his hands. He hadn't used the weapon once, he had only used it as a shield for when zombies came near him, and then Eva would kill them.
"Say DJ, you're single now, right?" she asked him.
"Y-yeah. Why?"
"I want to ask you something," she said as she looked away, trying to be as casual about this as possible. "When you asked out that girl back home, how did you do it?"
"Well, it really wasn't a case of my asking her out," DJ admitted. "We were just talking one day, then she brought up going to get something to eat, and I agreed, and while we were eating out, we discovered we had a lot in common..."
Eva looked at him, incredulous. "She asked you out?"
"Y-yeah. It's all cool."
"Never considered that," Eva remarked, tapping her lips in thought.
"Really? I always thought you would be the type of girl to do that."
"What?" she barked, glaring at him. "What does that mean, huh?"
DJ squeaked in terror, holding up his arms in defense. "It... it... it just meant that I always figured you would be the kind of girl who would ask a guy out. You're tough and all, so I thought if you liked a guy, you would be asking him out!"
Eva blinked, then scratched the back of her head. "Hmmm. Wait... wait, you're right! I thought for a minute you were implying I wasn't woman enough to let a guy ask me out."
"Th-that's okay too, do whatever you want!"
"Thank you. Um, you can stop shielding yourself from me now."
(Zombie Janitor's Closest has no teeth for eating brains...)
Eva - "Look, I know I have a temper. But maybe if people stopped from pissing me off..." \she blinks then sighs\ "I've heard people I'm too masculine, and it's ironic when you threaten to beat them up if they won't say you're feminine. At least Cody acknowledges a girl."
DJ - "I think there is a good side to Eva, maybe even sweet and tender like a rabbit, like Bunny! It's just really, really deep in there. Like, I'm talking really really really really really really deep in there!"
DJ relaxed, and breathed a sigh of relief. "You're scary when you're mad, Eva."
"Been told that many times."
"So, were you planning to ask Cody out?"
Eva flushed slightly, something rare to see and DJ couldn't help but smile at the sight. Before she could answer, her face was lit up by a bright flare in the sky. DJ and Eva looked up to see the flare glowing over the hospital a couple blocks away from them.
"What... what...," DJ stammered.
"They lit the flare already?!" Eva shouted in horror. "Damn it! We're not even in the hospital yet! The zombies are gonna come swarming-"
She was cut off when zombies came swarming from the shops around them. Several grabbed Eva, but she wrestled them out with no problem. As she skewered several through the head, one zombie grabbed her ponytail. Yanking her back as Eva's vision was slightly blurred, teeth dug into her throat.
DJ shrieked and started hitting zombies with his machete, but he wasn't using the right side. Eva's desperate struggles, despite a mauled neck, was the main force against the zombies.
The large teen looked around desperately for help, and screamed when he saw more zombies approaching. He could see zombies far away heading to the hospital, but all nearby them were closing in.
Eva collapsed as the zombies continued to attack her, tearing at her skin. She reached up and broke the closest one's neck, then smashed its face into another's. DJ reached down to help pull her away, but snapping zombie teeth made him retract.
"DJ," she called out to him. Blood was caking her face as she looked over at him desperately. "Get... the hell... out of here!"
"But... but Eva-"
"RUN," she screamed, driving her fist into another zombie's face. "Run, damn it, ru-"
Zombies collapsed on her, a dog pile of undead bodies. DJ froze for a few seconds as he lost sight of Eva, struggling to her last, and then took off screaming. Waving his hands in the air, he beelined for the hospital.
His screaming attracted zombies towards him, but any zombies foolish enough to stand in front of the panicking football player was knocked to the side. In his panic-stricken mind, DJ only thought about getting to the hospital.
How ironic that his idea of sanctuary was where every zombie in the city was going now.
(The Dusk, Mandy and Xander)
The two had not said much as they walked towards the docks. Xander had armed himself with a shovel, and had made some rather impressive-looking kills with it. Mandy had discarded her dagger when it broke inside a zombie's brain, and had picked up a pickax.
"Not really fitting to me," she admitted when she had equipped it, then burrowed the spite into a zombie's head, "but get enough blood on it, it'll appear cultish."
Xander had let her lead, something she insisted on doing. As she walked, the rebel couldn't help but admire her butt. Only zombies could distract him from looking, and any zombie foolish enough to do that was beaten, bashed, and/or sliced down with his shovel.
"So Mandy," the rebel finally said, getting a little bored of just staring at her butt, "you are a vampire person, right?"
"That's right! Vampires are the most awesome undead people there are! If only that Alfred guy hadn't said anything," she started to grumble. "He thinks he's so cool, with how zombies are the theme for the challenge..."
"Well he didn't pick it, Chris did."
"Yeah, but I expect Chris to be a jerk."
"But you don't think Alfred should be?"
"He's no jerk. He's...," Mandy trailed off, looking down at the ground and stopping. She sighed heavily and said, "Look, he's a zombie guy, I'm a vampire gal. It'll never work, not even as friends. We'll want to kill each other, and even each other's methods would be different."
Xander chuckled, earning a glare from her. "Listen bra," he said, "if you're worried about one difference, you're never gonna..."
He stopped when Mandy pointed behind him, and he saw a zombie police officer heading for him. Scowling in determination, Xander decapitated the zombie with a powerful underhand swing. As the head went soaring away, the rebel saw the gun still in the officer's holster, and grinned. Plucking it out, he cocked the hammer, and said to Mandy, "Duck."
Spinning around, he pointed the gun at the zombie approaching Mandy. The cultist had done as she was asked, and the zombie was blown away. As she stood up, she couldn't help but feel inspired, and something else as well. She felt it more when he blew the smoke away from the barrel of his gun.
"Wow, you are hot," she replied, grinning wickedly. "You wanna make out after the challenge is over?"
"Never on the first apocalypse, sweetheart," he replied, smiling at her.
(Zombie Janitor's Closest is not a very good zombie.)
Mandy - "A little forward for me? No, actually, I believe if you really want a guy, you go right after him. You be forward, and if they don't like that, find a new guy. Some girls call me a skank, but I know the world is ending soon, so why not enjoy first base while you still can, huh?"
Xander - "I don't mean to brag, but I have had girls be that forward with me. I have declined, mostly because I know if I have a daughter one day, I want karma to look fondly on me when boys hit on her. Or..." \he grins and punches his palm\ "when I start hitting them!
"Naw, I kid. But still, back to the first conversation, I think Mandy's swell and all, but just not my type. Great butt, though."
"Besides," Xander continued to say to Mandy as he equipped the belt holster for the gun, "wouldn't someone out there be upset if you were caught making out with me?"
Mandy frowned, then growled at him. "If you're referring to Hannah," she spat, "how many times do I have to say that I'm not-"
The roar of jets cut her off, and both watched them race off. Mandy looked at Xander and said, "I thought boats were saving us?"
"Must be one of the random things Joel told us about," Xander replied, unable to think of a better explanation.
"Look at 'em go," Mandy remarked. "They're almost out of sight alr... oh crap."
The direction of the jets led them to look at an approaching zombie horde. Both swallowed hard, as it was the direction they needed to go. Xander did a quick head count, and summed it up to about one hundred and fifty.
"Think we can take 'em?" he asked Mandy.
She grinned wickedly at him. "Sure. How many should I leave for you?"
He smiled back, but before he could reply, the roar of the jets came back. Missiles launched at the zombie horde blew them away in a cluster of flames, debris, and body parts. Mandy and Xander were close, and the explosion sent them flying off their feet.
Mandy slammed against a building, and covered her ears, which were ringing uncomfortably. She scurried to pick up her pickax when she heard the jets coming back. Taking shelter behind a bench, she huddled as more missiles were launched, erraticating the zombies and most of the neighborhood.
When the noise stopped, she stood up and looked around at the ruined street. The bloody remains of zombies, fires, and obliterated streets and buildings. It looked like the end of the world.
"Cool," Mandy gushed. "Man, Cthuhlu would be proud. You catch any of that, Xander?"
She looked around for her partner. All she could see was fire, zombie corpses, and ruination. "Xander?" she called out, her worry growing. "Xander? Xander!"
(Maclean Stadium)
Izzy watched the screens, her arms crossed in a huff. She saw zombies being mutilated and killed, contestants about the same. The more she watched, the more annoyed she grew.
"I've seen about one hundred and fifty-one ways to kill a zombie here," she snapped. "I'm missing out on all of it."
"How on earth did you get eliminated so quickly?" Carol asked as she chewed on a mouthful of popcorn.
"Owen."
Carol nodded, then pointed at the screen. "Could be worse. You could have been on The Dawn. Someone set off the flare too early, and now zombies are swamping them."
"I could have killed a swamp of zombies," Izzy snarled. "This contest is pissing me off more and more."
She watched as the giant screens switched between contestants. The crowd was really into the challenge, and their cheering just agitated Izzy more. She watched as Hannah beat down a zombie with an oxygen tank.
Alfred and Hannah were in the hospital when the flare went off, and zombies were coming out of all the rooms. The two were taking damage and advancing very slowly, but when they managed to get into the elevator, they were safe. Alfred tore one of his sleeves off and tied it around Hannah's arm where a bite wound was hurting her. She thanked him as she put the oxygen tank down and tightened the laces on her sneakers.
Clive and Belinda were trying to get into the hospital, fighting off the gathering zombies. Clive's 2x4 plank broke after he hit a few zombies, then he had to furiously kick the zombies away. Belinda, with strength that surprises everyone, yanked him from behind and plowed her way to the front door of the hospital. When inside, she slammed the door on their faces, causing some bloody impacts.
Leshawna and Rodney of The Dusk were trudging through the streets, both soaked to the bone. Leshawna had wrestled with a zombie at the pool, and accidentally fell in the pool. The zombie sank but she could swim; Rodney, who feared she couldn't had jumped in to save her. The two were getting rather tired of being in wet clothing, and Leshawna was mercilessly beating zombies with a hammer (which was making little Rodney very scared).
Justin and Zachary were arguing, but what about was anyone's guess; the screens were showing off the contestants and not broadcasting much of what they said. The crowd gasped when the model and the whiner were suddenly surrounded by zombies. Justin, panicking but trying to remain calm, ripped off his shirt and posed. The zombies stopped long enough to stare at that gorgeous body, and Zachary bolted for it, leaving the horrified model alone.
He thought he had won, but the zombies were all heavily drooling now. When they advanced on the model with hungry grins, he was soon eliminated.
"Aw man," Justin grumbled as he was disconnected from the virtual reality game and walked over to the other eliminated contestants. "I thought for sure that would work."
"Man meat just makes them more hungry, doofus," Izzy grumbled.
"You looked great when spearing them with a pitchfork, Justin," Katie gushed.
"Thanks," he said with a dazzling grin. "I don't mind admitting that that game was a lot of fun."
"What?!" Izzy shrieked. "You mean you, my evil ex, enjoyed it too? Even you liked it?"
"I still wonder if you two ever dated," Geoff mused.
As Justin protested and claimed they didn't, Izzy was crossing her arms and seething. The screens were now focused on Owen, who was beating down a small horde of zombies with a metal pipe. As zombie heads went flying, or splattered in a gory mess, Izzy's anger grew.
(Janitor's Closet - Not a zombie anymore, got better.)
Izzy - "I am just so mad at Owen right now! He kills me off right away, and now everyone is having more fun than me! I didn't get to kill one zombie, not a single one! When this competition is done, Izzy is so gonna give it to him!"
Owen - "I have to say, as far as the zombie challenge went, if there ever was a zombie invasion, I'm sure I'd survive."
Hannah - "Some people say when there is no room in hell, the dead shall walk the earth. I think that's rather morbid, since that implies hell is overflowing with evil souls."
Rodney - "Leshawna is a very cool lady, and she's lots of fun to be with... until she gets mad. Then she's really intimidating, and would be awesome to have a big sister or something."
Justin - "Zachary was, the entire time, trying to convince me that I needed to join this alliance he's in. I don't know who he thinks he is, but his implication that Beth would be in trouble if I didn't join was stepping way out of bounds!"
Zachary - "Justin's overly sensitive, all I was saying was that Beth needs looking out as much as he does, and that an alliance could save him. Is he still angry that I shot his girlfriend in the face with a paintball gun multiple times? That's a petty reason to be mad, now isn't it?"
Belinda - "Clive was a little difficult, because he tried to throw himself at the zombies a couple times. He claimed that he was trying to protect me, but honestly, do you need to protect a girl, armed with a screwdriver, from one zombie?"
Clive - "Why won't Belinda just let me die? It's not even a real death, just a very bloody simulation. But..." \he taps his chin and then sighs\ "Looking back, trying to kill myself so soon was rude, because then she'd be alone and in more danger, huh?"
Alfred - "I love this virtual reality campaign! Makes me feel like I'm living in the fourth wall! 'Haha, evil zombies, you cannot kill me, because I will respawn when they reset the game'!"
Leshawna - "Zombies kept chasing after me the entire challenge. Maybe the kid was short or something, or maybe my luscious booty is too hard for them to resist." \She chuckles and gives her butt a slap.\ "See that? This gets all the zombies and the boys chasing me!"
(The Dawn, Ezekiel and Heather)
Heather pulled herself up the ladder, thoroughly exhausted. Ezekiel helped pull her up, and caught her when she slumped against him.
"So... many... zombies," she moaned, weakly holding a blood-coated hatchet in her hand. "I swear, they more than doubled when that flare went off."
"All I want to knoo' is," Ezekiel said, holding her tight to him, "how could so many zombies appear in the hospital as we were halfway through it?"
"That's not what I want to know," she admitted. "I want to know who set off the damn flare!"
The two explored the hospital roof, and found that the flare launcher was behind a small room. Inside the small room was the control panel for the lights for the roof, and Colin playing with them.
"What the hell are you doing here, home school?" he barked at Ezekiel when he had entered the room.
"We managed to fight throo' the zombies to get up here, eh," Ezekiel explained. "What are you doing?"
"Trying to see what these gizmos do," Colin pointed at the light switches, ignoring the sticker labels next to them that said exactly what they did.
"Was it you who set off the flare?"
Colin gave him a sarcastic stare, then groaned. "Just let me know when the zombies get up here. I got a sledgehammer, two pistols, and enough bullets to take out every dead head in this city."
"Okay, eh," Ezekiel left the small room, and approached his girlfriend. "Well, Heather, it was him."
"Doesn't surprise me," she remarked, crossing her arms. "We just have to wait for the inevitable swarm of zombies now. They gonna come up that ladder we just came up?"
"I see a couple more ladders, and a couple stairs on the sides. Also, the elevator, if it finally decides to come up to the roof."
"Didn't when we tried it," Heather groaned, then asked, "How many arrows you got left, Zeke?"
"Only a few, better make them all count."
Heather nodded, then rubbed her head more. "This is a nightmare, but ironically, I'd rather put up with these zombies than Chris!"
Ezekiel giggled, and Heather added, "Just wish we didn't have to put up with Colin. I cannot believe he started up the flare before anyone else was here... hey wait! Where's his partner?"
Heather looked around, but couldn't see Geoff anywhere. Ezekiel went back into the light box room, and asked Colin, "Hey, where's Geoff?"
"Him? He's dead. Idiot stumbled into a horde of zombies when he was gushing about his stupid girlfriend."
Ezekiel bristled at the name-calling of his friend. Colin noticed it, and grinned. "Geoff said she has soft boobs, but I think she's got absolutely nothing there, huh? Probably why she wears that hoodie, to cover up the fact she doesn't have any."
Heather had to pull Ezekiel away, as her boyfriend was starting to notch an arrow as Colin cackled and went back to pounding the light switch.
(Janitor's Closet - Couldn't believe it was a zombie for a minute there.)
Ezekiel - \angry\ "The challenge wasn't so much of a pain as Colin was. That dickweed, those hoo'rible things he said a'boot Bridgette! Hoo' could someone be so cruel, so insensitive, and enjoy it?"
Heather - "I... um, listened in on Ezekiel's vent. I sometimes wonder how he could like me so much because... well, I was like that before we hooked up. I'm trying to leave that life behind me now, but how can I when people like Colin keep bringing it back up like if... well, like if it were a zombie."
\She sighs, then rubs her forehead.\ "I cannot believe I just used a nerdy metaphor to describe my feelings. I've been on this show too long, eh."
Chris Maclean - "As The Dawn and The Dusk close in on the hospital roof and the docks, it's time to see who lives and who dies! Right after this break!"
--
--
--
Who in The Dawn is going to survive the premature swarm of zombies? Will Ezekiel kill Colin himself?
Who of The Dusk are going to make it to the docks? Will they have the same problems with the flare, or will they have more luck?
And how many ways can YOU think of to kill a zombie?
The Dawn
Alive - Arthur, Courtney, Ezekiel, Heather, DJ, Colin, Anita, Gwen, Bridgette, Cody, Alfred, Hannah, Clive, Belinda, Beth.
Dead - Eva, Geoff, Crystal, Harold, Carol.
--
The Dusk
Alive - Noah, Sadie, Owen, Mandy, Joel, Howard, Zachary, Sebastian, Sakaki, Leshawna, Rodney, Valerie.
Dead - Izzy, Katie, Justin, Trent.
Unknown Current State - Yoshi, Tyler, Lindsay, Xander.
Next - Surviving the Zombie Onslaught.