Well it's been longer than expected but I've had one of the worst months of my life so I'm cutting myself a bit of slack. But I decided I couldn't just let this story die because I've been enjoying writing it as I hope you've all been enjoying reading it. This is one of the longer chapters I've written for this story so I hope you enjoy, this is sort of a transition chapter into the next major story arc. So sit back and enjoy.
P.S. Don't forget to vote in the polls if you haven't already for who you want to live.
WARNING: This story contains scenes of violence, swearing, sexual activities and character deaths.
"I care about you," Duncan was saying to Courtney, "I miss what we used to have."
"I love you," Courtney wanted to say but in reality she said, "I care about you too."
And then they came: undead forms of all those they'd lost. Owen, Sadie, Eva, Justin, Lindsay, Ezekiel, Tyler, Beth, Chris, Blaineley, Izzy, Chef, Harold, Gwen, LeShawna, Cody. Courtney blinked in surprise and cried out, trying to drag Duncan with her to the safety of the yacht where the others were waiting. But as she and the delinquent ran, she realized she was surrounded: her allies from the boat were behind her and they'd been turned too.
"Courtney I want you to know that everything I-" Duncan began but Chris the zombie grabbed hold of him and bit his neck.
"Duncan!" Courtney called out his name and screamed over and over again till her mouth felt like sandpaper. She knew Duncan could no longer hear her; could no longer see her. Could never be with her again. As tears spilled down her face she realized she couldn't do this without him. And then the hands reached for her too...
"Courtney!" Courtney heard a voice as she sat bolt upright in bed, screaming. She panicked for a moment as a hand touched her shoulder; she assumed she was in for a fight. But slowly she relaxed as she saw it was Noah who had attempted to gently shake her awake.
"We've docked." Noah told her simply, not commenting on how she'd been having a nightmare, "Thought I should let you know before we accidentally left you behind."
Courtney didn't snap at him for his sarcasm; in truth she was grateful he wasn't saying anything about her being afraid of something. She'd always carried herself with confidence, with pride and dignity. She dislikes, no, she loathed letting people think she had fear at all. Because fear leads to weakness. And she couldn't afford to be weak. Especially now.
Courtney had been fortunate enough to keep hold of her own bag of personal belongings, so she sent Noah outside to give herself some privacy as she changed. As she opened the bag she saw something that didn't seem to belong. She reached her hand in and pulled out the object: it was a skull. The same skull Duncan had carved D + C on the back way back in Total Drama Island. Courtney bit her lip: had she really not taken this out of her bag? Surely she'd just overlooked it; it was small after all. She knew she cared about Duncan, even if she hated admitting it, but the skull was too much for her now that people were dying left and right. She pocketed it with plans to chuck it later when no one else was paying attention.
When she left the privacy of her room on the yacht, she went out onto the bow and found that Noah had assembled the rest of the group minus DJ. Bridgette had kept careful watch over him and said he was stable for now, but losing blood. If they had any aspirations of saving his life, they needed to act soon.
"So, uh, what exactly do we do now?" Trent broke the awkward silence with the question on everyone's mind. After their few hour respite from the onslaught of the undead, the survivors were unsure of what was next. But after a brief scanning of the dock they had just pulled up to and stopped at, something brought about further uneasiness.
"There's no one here at all." Courtney said quietly and the others saw she was correct: there wasn't a soul to be seen, though there were other boats. The whole place seemed as if it hadn't been touched, which was odd. Surely people would've thought to escape by boat...
"We need to find a pharmacy or a hospital to get help for DJ." Bridgette stated, bringing them back to the main focus, "I can't believe there's no one out here that can help. We're going to save him."
She said it so fiercely, as if daring anyone to challenge her claim. No one did, though it was clear that a few others disagreed that this was their main prerogative.
"We need to get more weapons." Heather reminded everyone, "Noah is the only one who even has any bullets left and aside from that we have my ax and Alejandro's machete plus a bunch of pathetic kitchen knives that are about as useful as toothpicks."
"Yeah and I only have ten left." Noah remarked, checking what was in the cartridge of his .357 as well as the few extras he had in his pocket.
"Ten bullets for ten people." Katie murmured and the group fell silent once again as they realized she was right.
"Let us not despair my friends, both Bridgette and Heather are correct." Alejandro said, trying to steer away from the direction Katie had taken the conversation, "We need to save poor DJ but we also need more weapons. I suggest splitting up."
"Dude no way!" Geoff protested immediately, irking Alejandro, "We should stick together! Plus who's to say we even need any more guns? From what I can tell, there's nothing at all around. Maybe they're all gone?"
"Dude don't let the rocks in your brain speak for you," Duncan snorted at Geoff, "I hate to agree with the snake, but Alejandro is right. We can easily split up and look nearby for weapons and medicine.
"Don't call him that," Katie snapped angrily at Duncan and Alejandro hid his smile, "it's not like you're any better."
"You want to start something with me, wonder twin?" Duncan snarled back, "Though I suppose I should come up with a different nickname for you since you don't have your twin any-"
"Enough!" Courtney shouted, kicking Duncan to make him stop before he said something he regretted, "Get it together people, this is not even close to over yet. So let's stop arguing and do something productive! Alejandro, Duncan, Heather and I will go search for weapons and see if we can find out what's going on around here. Bridgette, since you know more about medicine than anyone else, you pick your team and go. At least one person needs to stay behind with DJ. We meet back here in two hours."
No one wanted to challenge her right now; everyone seemed fairly satisfied with the plan. Bridgette nodded, accepting her temporary leadership position and selected Trent, Katie and Noah to go with her. Geoff wasn't a big fan of that idea.
"Come on babe, you really should have me come with you." Geoff was telling her, "I have to protect you!"
"Someone strong has to stay behind in case something happens to DJ." Bridgette explained sadly, "And I don't think any of the others have what it takes to...do what might be necessary."
Geoff hung his head: she did trust him more than he'd even realized. He felt ashamed of himself but she quickly gave him a kiss and told him to be safe. He repeated the phrase to her and watched as everyone else in the group departed. Courtney and Bridgette's respective groups went in different directions and after a few minutes, Geoff could see them no more. He wondered briefly if they'd all make it back safe and sound, but the thought was too discouraging and he discarded it. May as well go check on DJ.
Duncan was experiencing a conflict of emotions. On the one hand, he was angry that Katie appeared to be growing closer to Alejandro and that Courtney had stopped him from shouting at her. But then on the other, he realized what a grave mistake that could've been: he could easily have alienated several people in the group with those harsh comments. There was a reason Courtney was the level headed one of the pair of them.
Still, he was rather irritated as he followed behind Alejandro and Heather, with Courtney off to his right. Duncan had already made up with Heather, and in truth he'd always been able to stand her more than most, but he still hadn't forgiven Alejandro. He considered the Spaniard to be the true villain here for more reasons than one.
"Why did you ask those two to come with us of all people?" Duncan whispered to Courtney as the foursome exited the marina and found themselves coming onto a city street.
"Truth?" Courtney asked and he nodded, "Because as much as I may not like them, who do you think are the most likely people to survive if we get into a confrontation?"
She had a point. It was pretty much common knowledge that Alejandro was one of the strongest, smartest and well put together competitors in Total Drama history. And Heather had plenty of skills of her own; she was the most successful competitor of all time. She'd proven herself time and time again, even when the odds were stacked against her.
"Yeah, but can we trust him?" Duncan gestured at Alejandro, who at the moment seemed to be coming to a stop, causing this private conversation to end with Courtney giving an uncertain look the delinquent's way.
"Still no sign of anyone at all." Alejandro mused as he scanned the area. True to his word, no one was able to detect the presence of any living or undead being. They'd left the docks and were traveling down the side of a road and up ahead they could see a ramp leading onto the highway.
"Strange," Heather muttered, "that TV report we saw showed people in a panic, and now nothing? Ugh, what the hell is happening?"
"We should hit that highway." Duncan said quickly, "Even if we don't find people, we can get stuff from their cars. I can see several cars just stopped in the middle of the highway up ahead: people must've left in a hurry."
"Then isn't that a good reason not to go over there?" Courtney asked but Duncan seemed to have his mind made up.
"Got to take risks sometimes, princess." Duncan said with a smirk as he now lead the way, "We might find food or weapons."
"Water and oil," Alejandro added, almost dreaming of the resources awaiting them, "we surely can't stay with that yacht for much longer. We'll need cars and thus gasoline."
"Maybe some new clothes?" Heather practically salivated at the thought, "I've never felt grungier in my life."
"Ah chica you still look magnifica." Alejandro grinned at her, but she rolled her eyes and walked away from him, eager to get to her dreamed of outfits. Courtney walked at the back of the party, not looking forward to this. A tingle went up her spine; her intuition was telling her this was a bad idea. Something horrible was about to happen. But how could she tell the others that she simply felt something in her bones? They wouldn't listen to that. So she shrugged and kept going, but her alertness was peaked and she constantly whipped her head back and forth: nothing was going to sneak up on her.
"Holy shit," Duncan gaped as they exited the ramp and reached the highway, "it's fucking carnage."
Perhaps a weak choice of words, but an accurate statement all the same. There were hundreds of cars parked and piled up on the highway all around them. Some had clearly been in wrecks as bits of shattered glass lined the roads. There had evidently been causalities as well: charred bodies of what was assumed to be humans were decaying in pools of ash. Dried blood lined a few car windows, but it didn't seem that anything had been here within the last few days.
"Perfect," Duncan grinned, "let's get searching."
"Shouldn't we come up with an organized method of searching-" Courtney tried but realized her words were lost on him as Duncan already raced off ahead to try and find something of interest.
"Having trouble controlling your boy toy Courtney?" Heather couldn't help herself and Courtney failed to resist the bait.
"Shut up Heather, he is not my boy toy. That's disgusting." Courtney insisted, "And besides, it's not like Alejandro is planning on helping you right now either."
Heather glanced over her shoulder and discovered she was right: Alejandro had also moved out of sight to search for water and siphon gas out of cars. The girls glared at each other: alone or together?
"You search nearby and I'll keep a lookout." Courtney decided, "I have excellent vision after all. At CIT training camp I had to learn how to spot poison from far away so as to help the campers avoid touching-"
"Ugh, fine!" Heather stamped her foot and moved away to shut out the barrage of useless information, "What are you, Harold?"
Neither girl said anything after that. As much as both of them had had their issues with him, they both realized they missed Harold. They missed all of them. Courtney climbed on top of a van so that she would have a better vantage point in case anything did make an appearance. She could just make out Duncan several yards away digging in the glove box of a car. He looked pretty pleased with whatever he'd found. Heather, of course, wasn't straying far and she was currently rummaging about in a suitcase and pulling out clothes from it: men's clothes. Heather threw them to the side in frustration and kept searching. But Courtney could not see Alejandro at all. Where had he gone?
"Can we trust him?" Duncan's words echoed in her brain and suddenly Courtney felt a lot more vulnerable. What if Alejandro really wasn't trustworthy? His motives had always been selfish before, was that still the case? And what of Heather? Courtney had always hated her for obvious reasons, but could she raven-haired schemer be after something more than surviving? Heather was always the first to disagree with Courtney's plans...
She heard something that made her skin crawl. Goosebumps formed instantly as she slowly turned her head in the direction of the sound: it was the zombies. Her eyes widened as she took in their numbers: this wasn't just one or two that could be handled. This was a horde. Countless undead horrors were stumbling towards the unsuspecting seekers and only Courtney could warn them. But she knew calling out to Duncan would give them away: it was possible these zombies had not seen them at all. Frustration set in as she realized there was no easy way to get to Duncan to warn him: in fact when she looked back for him, he had disappeared from view as well.
With the boys gone, all she could see was Heather. And she hesitated. Heather currently had her hand in a car window as she struggled to manually unlock the door. It was clear she had no idea of the impending danger. Courtney knew if she didn't warn her, Heather was going to die. A battle raged inside Courtney's head and her heart: if Heather were in her shoes, what would she do? Courtney flashed back to all the times the pair of them had fought, argued, even eliminated each other on the show they'd spent their last few years on. Heather had never been very loyal or friendly. But then she remembered Blaineley. Blaineley killed Chris out of spite and revenge for something petty and unnecessary. She'd gone completely insane and was ready to leave all of them to die. But it had been Heather who took Blaineley out; it was Heather who let them all on the yacht.
She made up her mind. She slid off the roof of the van and quickly dashed over to Heather, who was just giving up on unlocking that car. She saw Courtney approaching fearfully and rapidly; Heather raised a brow.
"Zombies," Courtney barely breathed out, "lots of them incoming. Have you seen the boys?"
Heather shook her head, "I thought you were keeping an eye on everything."
"I was," Courtney said annoyed, not caring to admit she had let her mind wander, "well we can't stand around talking or we're dead. They're both smart, they'll figure out something. But we need to get out of here. Oh, we're never going to make it off the highway without being seen!"
Courtney looked ready to give up, but now it was Heather's turn to save her, "Come on Courtney, I have an idea."
Heather grabbed Courtney by the arm and made a gesture for her to lay flat on her stomach. Courtney looked at her bewildered, but when she saw Heather do the same and then roll so that she was underneath a car, she understood. Courtney quickly did the same and now the two girls were together under a car, breathing heavily. Then they saw the footsteps begin to pass by them. Not a moment too soon. The only question was, what were they going to do now?
Bridgette was having a tough time. She still hadn't told anybody about her pregnancy and now she'd forced Geoff into staying behind on the yacht. She didn't tell him the full truth: she didn't want him making a big fuss about protecting her and possibly having to sacrifice himself. The thought made her feel ill; she couldn't imagine life without Geoff.
The surfer girl did notice that Trent seemed to be giving her odd looks, but every time she caught him doing so he'd quickly turn away. Weird. She planned to ask him about it later, but she didn't want to push it with him right now. He hadn't exactly been the same since they got off the island and she could only imagine what it must be like to lose the person you love. Damn it, there was that thought again. She bit her lip and tried to think about something else.
Katie and Noah were leading the way into what looked like a pretty small, run-down town. From first glance, the place seemed deserted. But there was a sign for a CVS and the thought of possibly scrounging for medicines to help DJ were enough to propel them forward. And though Bridgette didn't say anything, she was considering getting a few things personal to her and the baby. She wasn't sure she could cope with raising a child in this brutal world if it were to remain like this. How could she possibly keep it safe when she couldn't protect her friends who'd already perished?
"Here we are," Noah's drawl snapped Bridgette back into reality as they found themselves standing in front of the CVS, "I can't believe we actually made it. It's like all the bad luck in the area was just taken by someone else. Seriously though, where on Earth is everyone?"
"The place already seemed like a ghost town." Katie said as if trying to convince herself that nothing was strange about it, "Maybe no one was really here to begin with?"
"Well let's not take too much time ogling, we promised we'd be back in two hours." Trent reminded everyone, "Noah, since you're the only one with a gun, I think you should go first, man."
"Fine, but you'd better all come in right behind me." Noah resigned himself to going first and he opened the door. Bridgette noted that Trent purposely lined himself up to go last, right behind her. Was he protecting her for some reason?
Noah and Katie pushed into the pharmacy first and discovered that they were not the first people to try and ransack the place. The insides of the store were a bit of a mess: shelves had been overturned, items had been picked clean, and a few things littered the tiled floor at their feet. But still, it was apparent that there were still a decent amount of things left untouched that they might be able to use.
"Okay everyone, start grabbing bags and stuffing them with whatever medicines you can find." Bridgette instructed, "Any first aid equipment is wanted too. I promise I'll sort through it all when we get back so don't worry if you don't know what a type of medicine does."
They all nodded in understanding and got to work. Noah decided that instead of going for meds first, he'd focus on gathering whatever food he could find. He was somewhat disappointed that all he was capable of retrieving were some bags of chips and extremely stale crackers, but that was the quality he expected from a CVS: pathetic and yet passable. He threw the snacks into his bag and began looking now for more important items.
Katie had selected a few containers of Advil, Pepto-Bismol and Tums, but nothing that was really going to help DJ. And with her limited medical knowledge, she ended up just putting whatever else she could find in her bag as Bridgette had suggested. After pouring through a few more shelves, she found herself looking at a box of condoms and she paused.
"Well I guess that'll never happen." Katie said sadly to herself, but Bridgette had been passing by and overheard.
"Cheer up Katie, we'll help DJ get better and then anything's possible." Bridgette said with a wink.
Katie's face turned beat red, "W-who said anything about DJ?"
Bridgette realized what she'd said and wanted to apologize, but Katie quickly hustled away from that section of the store to go do literally anything else and hide her embarrassment. Bridgette felt a bit sheepish but eventually shrugged: she still had supplies to gather. Luckily for her, she had actually found some equipment that might help her get that bullet out of DJ's body and she felt satisfied. Though there was one more thing she was interested in searching for.
Bridgette was in the birth control section now and she had to kneel to look at the shelf containing what she wanted. She held the small packet of pills in her hand and hesitated, considering her options: was this really what she wanted? No, no it wasn't. But was it what she felt she had to do? That she wasn't so sure of.
"Did you ask Geoff?" She nearly hit her head as she jumped at the sound of Trent's voice, "Was this both of your decisions?"
"Did you know?" Bridgette dodged the question, feeling slightly guilty: so that's why Trent was hanging around her.
He nodded, "Geoff confided in me and I'm glad he did. You don't need to carry that burden by yourself. But Bridgette, it's still a burden that can be carried. Heck, we don't even need to consider it a burden."
"Trent how do you expect me to be a mother in a zombie infested world?" Bridgette asked tiredly as a wave of bottled up emotions hit her hard, "Geoff and I didn't even want the baby, it was an accident..."
"Think of it more as a pleasant miracle." Trent told her, realizing she was teetering dangerously on the verge of rash action, "At least give it a chance. There's no telling what might happen after all, good or bad. Surely something has to go well, right?"
Bridgette took a deep breath and nodded, "Alright, I'll wait. And just so you know, I do plan to tell the others. I just hadn't yet because I wasn't sure if I was going to...you know...keep it."
Trent nodded, "It's alright, no rush."
He gave her a quick hug, though he also didn't notice her slip the pills into his open bag during their embrace. She meant what she said, but she wanted the option. She felt every one deserved a choice.
"I'm thinking we should start thinking about heading back." Noah interrupted the hug as he and Katie rounded the corner, "I just came face to face with a zombie caught in the bathroom and that was enough of a close call for me to want to leave."
"Alright," Bridgette agreed and attempted a smile, "then let's get back and save DJ!"
A gun. Duncan had found a gun in the glove compartment of a car and he was ecstatic. What luck! He checked and saw there were already bullets locked and loaded. He noticed that one was missing from the cartridge and it wasn't much of a mystery to figure out where it went; he glanced at the dead body in the driver's seat with a gaping hole in his head. Duncan thanked him for his services.
"Amigo!" Duncan heard Alejandro hiss at him from his right and the ex con turned in his direction, "Zombies!"
Alejandro had pointed in the direction of the girls and Duncan saw he was right: there were tons of shambling figures approaching them. Duncan panicked for a second: where were the girls then? Had Alejandro left them to die? No, no he wouldn't just leave Heather like that. Would he?
"We need to hide." Alejandro decided and as he glanced around, all he could think of was the trunk of the car next to them that was slightly ajar, "Get in."
"No way dude," Duncan protested, "after juvie, I ain't a big fan of tight and confined spaces."
"And I imagine you're less of a fan of being eaten alive." Alejandro replied and Duncan conceded the point. Still, he was less than thrilled that he had to climb into a rusty old trunk and almost completely shut the lid so the zombies couldn't get him or the womanizer. As zombie after zombie passed them by, Duncan began to regain his normal breathing: they weren't going to be discovered. Now he just hoped the girls were okay.
After what seemed like hours of agonizing waiting, the horde seemed to pass fully. Duncan wanted to leave instantly, but Alejandro halted that idea and simply explained there could be stragglers. Or some of the others may have turned around. So after what Duncan viewed as a pointless fifteen more minutes of waiting, he finally shoved the trunk cover up so that he could step back into the light of day. Alejandro followed him out after noting nothing came to attack Duncan right away.
"Now we find the girls." Duncan said with determination, but he was surprised when he received a response from someone that wasn't Alejandro.
"Oh we've found them for you." A surprisingly gruff female voice said from across the way, "Isn't that thoughtful of us?"
Duncan's fist clenched: whoever this girl was had just walked out with a very scared looking Courtney and Heather at gun point. Duncan had to confirm that she was a girl after looking at her a few more times. Her very short blonde hair and gray sports outfit almost made her appear to be a man.
Duncan took out the gun he'd found in the car and pointed it at her, "Let them go or you get to find out what a bullet tastes like."
"Duncan! She isn't alone!" Courtney hollered at him in warning, and that may be what prevented Duncan from doing anything foolish. As he heard the warning, he felt someone else approaching from behind and grab hold of him: two pairs of strong, muscular hands grappled him and forced him onto the ground. One of them grabbed the gun from him and he felt helpless. He noticed that next to him, Alejandro wasn't even attempting to fight off their attackers and he calmly held his hands up in the air at the request of a red-headed man.
"Nice work Brightning, Sergeant Leaky and Rat Boy." The girl said cheerfully, "Now we get to decide what to do with our new friends. Isn't that fun?"
And here they are, season 4 characters! 9 chapters in and I thought it was about time I brought them into the fold. Especially since there aren't that many originals left haha! As I said earlier, this is the beginning of a new story arc now that we're off the island for good and I think this one will be pretty intense as well.
What's going to happen to those on the highway at the mercy of a new group? Is DJ going to survive his wounds? Will Bridgette decide to keep her baby? The answers to these questions and more next time on Undead Drama!
Don't forget to drop some reviews, I love reading them!
DEAD: Sadie, Owen, Justin, Eva, Lindsay, Ezekiel, Tyler, Beth, Chris, Sierra, Blaineley
ALIVE: Heather, Duncan, Geoff, DJ (injured), Bridgette, Trent, Courtney, Katie, Noah, Alejandro
UNKNOWN/PRESUMED DEAD: Gwen, LeShawna, Izzy, Harold, Cody, Chef Hatchet