I'm back with another chapter! I think it's more realistic to expect infrequent updates like this one. Those first couple chapters I managed within like four days? An anomaly. No way I'm going to be able to do that consistently, regardless of how much I enjoy writing this story.
I'd like to thank those who have reviewed and expressed their likes (and possibly dislikes) about the story. I've gotten great reviews and it seems people really are enjoying the fic. I hope that continues! So drop me some reviews to help me learn what you're all thinking about the story!
And now, on with the chapter!
WARNING: This story contains scenes of violence, swearing, sexual activity and character deaths.
Courtney led the way through the dense woods for quite some time before her eventual pause. She had turned around at some point to count up who all was with her: she saw Chris, Beth, Heather, Bridgette, DJ, Geoff, Katie, Noah, Blaineley, Duncan, Trent and Alejandro had managed to escape with her. Counting herself, that was thirteen.
Only thirteen of us made it out? Courtney found herself questioning and feeling sad: that meant Gwen was gone. She knew what she'd said about the boyfriend stealer before and how she would never forgive her, but Courtney was sorry she'd ever said such things. Now Gwen was gone and there wouldn't be a chance for Courtney to try and mend their broken friendship.
"Should we stop to see if the others made it out?" She jumped as Trent spoke to her; Trent. She couldn't even bear to look at him to see the pain he was feeling. She was no fool: Courtney knew Trent had never given up on Gwen.
She swallowed hard, "We can take a five minute rest break, but you heard Chef. Our instructions were to get to the yacht as quickly as possible to leave the island."
"We're not going to leave without at least waiting for the others though, right?" Bridgette asked, uncertain of how Courtney was going to answer.
"When we board the yacht, if it's possible, we'll stay docked and see if the others show up." Courtney decreed, "I'm sure Chef would think that's the honorable thing to do."
"Well Chef isn't here." Blaineley's voice cut across intensely, "And therefore we don't have to listen to that psycho's rules and plans. We're going to get on that yacht and leave, no questions asked."
"What? But that's so mean." Beth protested.
"Since when did you think you could boss everybody around?" Chris asked Blaineley angrily, "That's supposed to be my job!"
"Oh please, you're a spineless coward." Blaineley retorted, "You claim to be this big shot who has all sorts of great ideas, and yet you let Chef Crazy lead the group and get plenty of people killed."
"I let Chef take the reins because he has had actual military experience." Chris defended himself, "I may be shallow but I'm not an idiot. I wouldn't know what to do in this kind of a situation."
"Then let me take charge." Blaineley said, pointing at herself with her extended thumb, "Since we're the only adults here, it makes perfect sense. So shut it Courtney and let the grownups handle this."
"Only I'm allowed to bully my campers." Chris said, actually seeming angry, "How dare you!"
"This is all quite fascinating," Noah piped up, "but why don't we worry about things that are of actual concern right now? Like not arguing loud enough for everything in Canada to hear?"
"The little dude is right, things are getting way too heavy." Geoff was the surprise aid to Noah's comment, "Let's just relax man."
"As if I'm going to take the advice of a boy with the IQ of a peanut." Blaineley scoffed with dismissal towards Geoff, who frowned, "We're going to follow what I-"
"We're moving on." Courtney stated firmly, regaining control of the situation, "We can argue when we're safely on that boat, but for now we're leaving. Anyone who wants to stay and shout at each other can do so without me."
The arguing ceased, though tempers were still running high. No one wanted to be left behind, so everyone kept their egos in check for now and continued along the path under Courtney's guidance. At one point, a slightly irritated Heather did whisper to Alejandro, "But seriously, why does Courtney get to be in charge? I would do a much better job."
"Patience mi angel," Alejandro purred quietly, "we'll have our chance, but for now let them fight it out. And when the fight is over, we will make our move."
Chef, Harold, Gwen, Sierra, Cody, LeShawna and Izzy had been running to try and catch up to the others. Izzy's massive explosion that she had caused was, fortunately, the reason why no zombies really pestered them on their journey. But unfortunately, they didn't know the exact path Courtney had taken and they couldn't really know how far behind they were. Or even if the other group was still alive.
LeShawna was having the most difficulties keeping up. She was panting heavily and finally stopped, putting her arm against a tree, "Running is not my thing, I'm not sure how much farther I can go."
Gwen skidded to a stop, prompting the others to join her, and she walked back to LeShawna to place her hand on her shoulder, "No problem, we can take a quick break. I owe you at least that much for coming back to save me at the cottage."
"Girl don't even worry about it. You're one of my sisters, and I always look at for my sisters!" LeShawna grinned back at the Goth and gave her a fist bump.
"I'll stand watch!" Sierra declared and then giggled, "Oh my gosh Codykins, this is just like that time on the plane in season three when you said you had very important business and you asked me to stand watch against the others! It had something to do with a picture and-"
Cody blushed, recalling exactly the instance Sierra was talking about, and he could not bring himself to look over at Gwen. Luckily, Gwen was a bit preoccupied with LeShawna and no one was really listening to Sierra.
"We shouldn't be taking many breaks." Chef was grumbling, more to himself than anybody else, "Those things might be slow, but they don't seem to tire."
"Indeed, their endurance is unrivaled." Harold said, pushing up his glasses as he spoke, "Their lack of sensitivity to anything short of death is astounding and magnificent. The neuroscience field will be-"
"Shut up!" Chef snapped at him, stopping the geek midsentence and raising his voice unnecessarily. Everyone collectively cringed and the cook breathed out, "Sorry, I just can't stand those annoying factoids o' yours."
"We should get moving again." Gwen said, slightly fearful, "Loud sounds seem to attract the zombies and Chef's shouting reminds me of a siren."
Chef would have retorted, except that she had a point. Swallowing his insult for the time being, Chef got the others into formation and the group continued their search for both the docks and the other campers.
After a long time of fumbling their way through the woods, Courtney's group found themselves just on the edge of the tree line between the woods and the campgrounds of Camp Wawanakwa. The cabins were no longer intact, with some of them having burned down in the fire started by Duncan's lighter. A few of the cabins looked badly damaged aside from some singe marks, and no one even considered going back to them to get anything they may have left there: it was left for dead.
There were plenty of zombies still roaming around the campground; some crew and interns, others ordinary looking citizens. This brought much confusion to the campers, but something else caught their attention: the yacht. To their great relief, the yacht looked to be untouched and was still anchored peacefully on the dock. The moonlight even seemed to shine down on the boat, as if painting the yacht in the light of safety. And heaven. Now they just had to get there.
"Okay we have an objective and a serious problem." Courtney addressed the group, her voice very low, "The yacht is still there, but there's tons of disgusting zombies wandering about. We need to find a way to get rid of them, or at least distract them long enough for us to escape to the yacht. Any ideas?"
"Chris could go offer them his hair gel and fashion tips," Blaineley said sarcastically, "as hideous as he is, his style would be a significant improvement for those deadbeats."
"Or maybe we could feed the most useless member of our group to the z-freaks to allow the rest of us a chance." Heather sneered at Blaineley, "You want to know who that might be? Her name rhymes with plainly-"
"Um guys, not helpful." DJ interjected while the girls all glared at each other, along with Chris as he checked to make sure his bag of hair gel was still there. "But I think a distraction would be good. Wait, Chris that's it!"
Chris looked confused as the brick house grabbed his bag and hoisted it into the air, "We can use Chris' bag of hair gel and other assorted products to distract the zombies!"
"That has got to be one of the worst ideas I've ever heard." Noah deadpanned.
"Hear him out, I think he has an interesting idea." Katie said, gesturing for DJ to continue.
"If we douse Chris' bag, and maybe even one other, with perfume, deodorant, hair gel, shampoo and hair spray, the bag is going to smell a lot like my mama's church makeup kit. And that stuff is rank." DJ explained, "We throw the bag over by the cabins, and the zombies are attracted to the scent and the sound it makes when it lands in the cabin!"
"Could work..." Courtney considered it, though she didn't sound one hundred percent sold on the idea.
"I think it's brilliant." Katie smiled at DJ, who returned the smile, "I can give you my bag too, there's hair spray and stuff in it. I shared this bag with Sadie, but we don't really need it now..."
DJ put a hand on her shoulder, "Thanks Katie, that's really thoughtful of you to offer. Why don't you help me figure out what to use to make the bags have a really strong smell?"
"Yeah alright." Katie accepted, very pleased to be considered useful after her meltdown in the bathroom a few hours ago.
"Even if this...odd plan works," Alejandro began, "we still have to get all of us onto the yacht undetected and then remove the anchor from the boat. All this while still waiting for Chef and the others to show up."
"Which we don't have to do." Blaineley reminded him, "So here's what we do. After mama's boy and idiot girl finish their little project, the rest of us will make a run for the yacht. The strongest people will deal with the anchor and then we set sail, got it?"
"No," Trent said firmly, "we're going to at least give the others a chance to catch up once we're on the yacht."
"You people are so stupid-" Blaineley began but Chris cut her off.
"Just shut up Mildred!" Chris spat, "I like the kids' plan. Ready whenever you are DJ."
"Since when did Chris start caring about our opinions? Or actually be nice to us?" Bridgette asked Geoff. The best he could do was shrug his shoulders.
"Just remember everybody," Courtney said, "wait and see if DJ's plan works before running. Okay?"
They nodded, though some looked very jittery. Beth arguably the most nervous among them. The farm girl was trying desperately to keep it together and now that she could see the yacht she felt slightly more relieved. All she needed to do was get on board.
While DJ and Katie wrapped up their noxious concoction, Chris had pulled Duncan and Heather aside. Both were confused and displeased: they hated the reality show host they'd been forced to spend three years with.
"What do you want McLean?" Duncan asked aggressively.
"I just wanted to let you guys know...I'm very proud of you both." Chris managed to get out and both of them looked stunned: Chris was praising them?
"Okay, who are you and what did you do with Chris the creep?" Heather asked.
"You both won my show." Chris was flushed with embarrassment at being nice for a change, but he wanted to get it out, "You two are among the highest rated characters on the show and it helped that you emerged victorious. You both, along with Owen, did wonders for my image and my life. So even though you didn't really win the competition for me, I wanted to say thank you."
They were both silent as the processed this. Finally Heather asked, "Is that why you had our photos inside your mansion?"
Chris nodded, "You two and Owen were special because you won. But everybody, in one way or another, helped me get to the fame and fortune I now live. I have pictures of everyone in my gallery of fame because I cared about each and every one of them. I was only really sadistic and mean-"
"Not to mention annoying, cruel, antagonizing-" Duncan started rattling off other descriptive adjectives.
"My point is I only did it for ratings." Chris claimed, "I just wanted you to know that I'm not heartless."
"Wow, well thanks for telling us I guess." Duncan said, sharing a glance with Heather, "I guess you're not a total psychopath after all."
"Finished!" Katie said proudly, holding up the bags. Everybody plugged their noses as she handed them to DJ to throw; he was bigger and stronger after all.
"Alright everybody, here goes nothing." DJ gulped and counted to five in his head before he launched the bags as far away from him and towards the campgrounds as he could manage.
It appeared the plan was working. Several of the zombies milling about the camp went to investigate this object with a strange new scent. Even the ones near the dock saw the movements of their comrades and slowly made their way to join them.
"It's safe." Beth exclaimed with pure relief and was the first to begin on her way towards the yacht, Chris and Blaineley right behind her.
"Wait!" Courtney cried out a warning, "We should wait longer!"
But the nerves and anxiety were what got Beth. She didn't register Courtney's words at all as she started running for the boat. It was so close and the zombies were distracted anyway. DJ's brilliant plan was going to save her life and she would be forever indebted to him. She could already picture herself making a friendship bracelet for him once they were inland.
Then she was jumped by a zombie she hadn't seen in her blind rush for the yacht. Standing on the side of one of the cabins, just in her blind spot, was a very young looking child. Then when looked at more closely, it was easily determined that this child had been infected. It stared at Beth with big, wide eyes, as it clutched it's little teddy bear in one hand. Beth froze: the poor thing, it was just a kid. How could she hurt it?
Well, the zombie kid didn't have the same concerns. It jumped on top of Beth, shocking her, and immediately bit down on Beth's nose. Beth shrieked and tried to push the former child off of her but to no avail. After it finished chomping on her nose, it had moved onto her eyes and now Beth could feel the sheer agony of having one of her eyes get plucked out of its socket. She was sobbing and she knew it wouldn't be long before she became one of them too. Those were her final thoughts.
Chris had also panicked and begun running towards the yacht, but after seeing Beth go down he was more interested in returning to the group. But as he turned to run back, he yelped as he came face to face with a zombified intern whom he had tortured a lot in his run as the show's host.
"Nice intern..." Chris said, slowly backing away as it snarled at him, "I'll give you a raise?"
The zombie reached for him with outstretched arms and grabbed a hold of him. After struggling for a moment, Chris closed his eyes, ready to embrace death. He knew he deserved it as karma for everything he had done in his life.
Then he felt the grip on his arms slacken. He opened his eyes and saw that it was surprisingly Heather who had come to his rescue. She had just chopped the zombie's arm off with a hand axe Alejandro had given her. The undead now snarled at Heather and would've taken a chunk out of her if it weren't for Duncan jamming his knife into the back of its head. Both of the winners Chris had taken the time to reveal the truth to had saved him. They'd believed him. He felt as if he'd finally confessed his sins and been shown the righteous path. It was the most soothing feeling he'd ever experienced.
"Thank you-" Chris smiled but it was the last time anyone would ever see his pearly whites. A gunshot rang out from the clearing and the bullet entered Chris' brain right through the frontal lobe. Chris was dead as soon as the bullet hit him and he collapsed in between Heather and Duncan, who both looked back to see what the heck was going on.
They saw it was none other than Blaineley who had fired the gun. The same pistol that Chris thought he'd lost in the woods earlier. The same pistol that Blaineley had stolen and refused to tell anyone about. She'd finally succeeded: she'd gotten her revenge against the horrid monster who'd defiled her image on national television. It felt exhilarating.
"Finally!" Blaineley screamed with delight as all the others just stared, open-mouthed, at her, "He got what was coming to him. Where's the witty retort Chris? Where's your awful buddy Chef now? Where's your life line to the producers? Oh that's right, gone! All gone!"
No one was moving, except for the zombies, while Blaineley spoke. The undead were much more drawn to the gun shot and were quickly abandoning pursuit of DJ's bag. But still, Blaineley kept on ranting.
"The rest of you should be thanking me for killing that devil." Blaineley said, glancing about with a wicked glint in her eye, "I am the angel of death! I have saved everyone from the horrors of Chris McLean! And now, I shall reap my own reward! That yacht belongs to me!"
"You bitch!" Courtney was the first to snap out of her surprise, and she roared at Blaineley, "You're a murderer! And you just cost us everything!"
"Quiet Miss CIT," Blaineley spat at her and pointed the pistol at Courtney, "I have plenty more ammo in this baby."
Courtney tensed up, not daring to move for fear of being shot by this lunatic. Blaineley glanced wildly about the rest of the group, as if challenging them to defy her and face the music themselves. No one attempted to do so, though Noah did find the courage to speak.
"Um Blaineley, those zombies are getting closer." Noah said, meekly pointing over Blaineley's shoulder.
"Good," Blaineley said smugly as she slowly started backing towards the yacht, "you all can deal with them while I escape."
"You're seriously going to just leave us here? Man that is so not cool!" Geoff frowned at her but Blaineley just laughed at him.
"Sorry not sorry Geoff!" Blaineley said and took a very quick glance behind her where she saw some zombies had almost reached them, "Have fun with these though!"
Blaineley sidestepped and allowed the zombies to attack the rest of the group. This finally prompted everybody into action. In a panic, Geoff fired his gun into the head of the first zombie and it dropped at his feet. Another one was about to hit him while he reloaded, but DJ's powerful shotgun blasted it to bits. Geoff silently thanked his friend and prepared to continue the defense, making sure Bridgette was right behind him. He saw DJ was doing the same thing with Katie right behind him at arm's length.
"On your left." Noah directed from behind Alejandro, who listened to the bookworm and sliced his machete to the left, slicing off the head of the nearest zombie, "Two more coming on your right."
Alejandro fended off his two new attackers, while Noah continued assisting. Without a weapon, Noah had decided the strong, albeit unreliable, Spaniard was his best chance at surviving the encounter. Out of his peripheral view, Noah saw that Courtney was being cornered and backed into a tree as she tried to fight off the charge of three zombies by herself. He saw Trent pathetically stabbing at a zombie with nothing more than the kitchen knife Chef had given him. Katie and Bridgette were cowering behind DJ and Geoff respectively, who were both running low on ammo. Heather and Duncan had completely disappeared, as had Blaineley, from sight. Chris' body was now being eaten by a few zombies who hadn't bothered to join the fray just yet. Beth's zombified body had just risen up from the ground and had begun its journey towards the waiting feast.
"We aren't going to survive." Noah whimpered, finally showing his fear. Others were starting to drop morale as well and it was looking extremely grim for the whole group.
"Get away from me you nasty monsters!" Courtney shrieked as she fired yet another round into a zombie's head. She had killed a good amount of them, but more and more kept coming towards her. She still had another three to deal with and when she pulled the trigger the next time, she had an unfortunate realization: she was out of ammo.
She backed up but felt the rough bark of a tree grind against her back; there was nowhere else for her to go. She was nearly surrounded and practically defenseless. Tears threatened to spill but she refused to show any weakness, even in death. But even she couldn't help but cry out when the zombies finally lunged for her: it was her time of dying. She closed her eyes and waited for the end.
Cliffhanger time. I thought leaving her fate unknown for a little while was great after already killing off multiple characters in this action-packed chapter. What's going to happen to Courtney? Where the heck did Duncan and Heather go? Is Blaineley seriously going to take off with the yacht by herself? And where is the other group? All the answers and more next time on Undead Drama!
DEAD: Sadie, Owen, Justin, Eva, Lindsay, Ezekiel, Tyler, Beth, Chris
ALIVE: Gwen, Heather, Duncan, LeShawna, Geoff, Izzy, DJ, Bridgette, Trent, Harold, Courtney, Cody, Katie, Noah, Alejandro, Sierra, Blaineley and Chef Hatchet