With the group now in the United States, the level of danger has increased drastically, there is no telling what could be lurking in the shadows. But there is a target destination to reach...
The group had set up camp for the night, managing to hike Westward quite a bit. Though it was difficult for them to tell as for as far as they walked it was just mountainous terrain and trees as far as they could see...
"So how many much longer 'till we get there?" Eddy asked impatiently.
"Patience Flat-Headed Ed-Boy, complaining about the remaining distance to the sanctuary will not let us arrive there more quickly." Rolf replied, whittling a large branch's edge to a sharp point.
"Rolf's right, Eddy. We have to be patient as we still have a ways to go before we reach that compound." Double D added.
"Yeah, it might be a zombie apocalypse, but enjoy the nice, clean air!" Matt added, half-joking. Everyone was half expecting Ed to respond in some way but he was actually silent.
"Ed?" Double D asked, he looked around and saw that Ed wasn't with them, sitting around the campfire that everyone else was seated around.
"Ed?!" Some of the others called out.
"Hey Lumpy!" Kevin and Eddy yelled together, Kevin had adopted the nickname some time after the events of the Big Picture Show.
The sound of a zipper opening prompted everyone to turn their heads towards their tents.
"Hello!" Ed said cheerfully as he stuck his head out if the tent.
"Oh, you must have been asleep! Please forgive us Ed." Double D apologized.
"Oh no I wasn't sleeping, I was taking notes Double D!"
"Notes? Notes of what?!" Eddy asked, confused and annoyed at Ed's seemingly useless studying.
"Notes about the zombies! See?" Ed took out a lead pencil and book that he had been writing in. Kathy took the book and looked at it, Sarah, Jimmy, and Erin all crowded around her in curiosity at what Ed had done.
Within the book were drawings of the differing types of zombies they had encountered so far alongside some rather scarce information about them.
'zombie: can be slow or fast, very powerful, normally in grouos of 3 or more'
'rock zombie: just like a normal zombie but its skin is hard as rock, guns dont hurt it'
'animal zombie: a zombie animal'
'deerhaunter: a zombie deer that walks on two legs and tried to ram you with its horns'
'James: a friend that was turned into a zombie'
As the book was being passed around, the Peach Creek group began to habe solemn look on their faces upon seeing that Ed didn't draw a picture of James, but instead taped his yearbook picture to his notebook.
"This is actually rather impressive! Eddward, you must see this!" Kathy said, handing Double D the journal, Eddy and most of the teens crowded around to see.
"Woah." Kevin said, an impressed look on his face.
"Who ever knew the oaf-ish Ed-boy had such artistic talent!" Rolf inquired. The drawings Ed had done for each different type of zombie were detailed but not to a disturbing extent, he had even included several anatomical poses for each zombie and even a sort of grading scale that determined the level of danger that each enemy gave off.
"Is it really that good?!" Ed asked with excitement.
"Of course, Ed. The descriptions are a bit crude but Katherine and I would be willing to change that if that's alright. It is your journal after all." Double D requested.
Ed jumped at the idea and handed the two intellectually gifted teens pencils. The two went right to work while Ed joined everyone at the campfire. Everyone gave Ed a few words of priase before returning to their own conversations.
May looked nervous as she finished piling a can of instant mashed potatoes and gravy onto a paper plate from the supplies they had in Canada. She took a deep breath before walking towards Ed with the plate.
She stood in front of him, she was extrenely nervous but it was impossible to tell from her appearance. Ed looked confused and even a bit nervous himself as to why she was now in front of him.
Ed smiled politely and thanked May for the food. She went back to join her sisters and watched Ed happily devour the food.
"You're making progress May." Lenore said smiling at her daughter. Beneath the hair covering her eyes, Lee looked at Eddy and reflected on how they interacted since the Big Picture Show.
The Eds still avoided the Kankers as much as possible but ever since that day they've been a bit more lax around the Eds and, in turn, the Eds have been a bit less fearful of them. Eddy and Lee themselves began casually speaking to each other more after everyone returned to the cul-de-sac after the movie, eventually the rest of the kids accepted them after they began to mellow out. It took quite a while for everyone in the neighborhood to accept them into their circle of friends but by the time all of them (not including Sarah and Jimmy, as they were younger than everyone else) had graduated middle school and were heading to high school, there was little to no animosity between any of them.
Eventually everyone headed to sleep, they would need an early start for the morning.
Double D woke up the next morning to the sound of chuckling, his eyes were closed though so he could not see who it was. Whoever it was though, there were about four of them, their laughter was controlled, as though the ones laughing were desperately trying to keep their voice down, like a couple of kids trying to pull a prank.
As Double D opened his eyes he was met with the faces of Ed, Eddy, Kevin, and Matt. They were giving him looks that appeared to be envious, yet also a bit of pity. As the intelligent teen vecame aware of his surroundings, he began to realize why he was getting those looks. To his left was Kathy, sleeping on his arm holding Ed's journal and to his right was Marie, holding into his arm and using it as a pillow.
"Way to go, man!" Matt whispered, he and Kevin giving Double D a thumbs up.
"Aren't you a lucky guy, Casanova!" Eddy whispered in a mocking tone.
"This is just like a scene from a soap-opera my mom and I used to watch called 'La Forma Del Amor'!" Ed added, garnering looks of shock and confusion from the other boys.
"What?" Ed asked. "Soap-operas are really fun to watch!"
"Well, despite the rather, um... suggestive situation I've awoken to..." Double D began, Kathy rolled away from him, letting go of Double D as he slipped his arm away from Marie to get dressed. "We still have about another day or so before we reach the compound, so it would be best if we woke everyone else up and began moving."
"Exactly as Rolf and his family were up to, Double D Ed-Boy!"
The boys left the tent that everyone was in saw Rolf and his family preparing to move.
"Rolf and his parents here woke us up, we saw what was going on with you and couldn't help ourselves." Kevin explained. "Speaking of which, why are you up so early, Rolf?"
"Rolf's family always wakes up early, Kevin! We work in the fields during the morning hour in order to get the most out of our day."
"Well if we do have to get moving, we should wake everyone up." Matt said.
"HEY! EVERYBODY GET UP!" Eddy shouted.
"BACK OFF FISHFACE!" Sarah shouted back at him, the force of her voice knocking the boys down.
The sun continued to rise as the group continued hiking. It was relatively quiet aside from the small conversations a few of the teens had.
"Ed." Kathy said, getting the large boy's attention. "Edward and I finished working on your journal, you can have it back now."
Ed accepted his journal and eagerly looked through it, his drawings remained unchanged, but the information regarding the different types of zombie was now much more detailed, with nearly the entire page being full of information.
"Cool!" Ed said in excitement, reading through the information the two smart teens had included as though he was reading a comic book.
Jonny held Plank close to him as he looked around the wilderness in amazement. He had explored the woods around the cul-de-sac many times and now that he was in wooded area that he had never been in before he felt excited and calm despite the circumstances of why he was there. He was with his friends, old and new, and right now he felt that so long as they stuck together, they'd be alright.
He looked over to Nazz and noticed that she looked depressed...
"Nazz, are you okay?" He asked. He didn't mean to draw so much attention to them but suddenly, all of the teens were looking at them with concern.
"I'm fine, it's just... You guys know what today was supposed to be, right?" Nazz asked. Everyone was silent, wondering what Nazz was implying until Double D caught on to what was making her upset.
"Oh... It was supposed to be today, wasn't it." Double D sighed.
"What? What was supposed to be today?" Janyse asked.
"Our graduation."
The general aura everyone had was now suddenly somber and depressing. There they were, a group of kids, most of them about to graduate high school, now forced to survive in a country they've never been in before because of a zombie apocalypse.
They continued to walk silently as the revelation took its toll on them all. Despite the negativity, Ed tried to think positive thoughts, like how he made so many new friends like Matt and Janyse in high school...
A refreshing breeze blew through Peach Creek, it was early September and the school buz had just picked everyone up for their first day of school. Ed felt nervous about his first day, he had his two best friends by his side and now all of the kids liked him too, even Jonny was his friend, even after the whole 'Gourd' issue.
The teens all stepped off the bus and looked at Peach Creek High, it was much bigger than Peach Creek Middle School, having four floors as opposed the the Middle School's two. It had everything the Middle School had in terms of extra-curricular activities and locations like the football field, library, and so on.
Eddy lead the trio forward to their homeroom, which they were thankfully sharing. As they were heading to their lockers, Ed was having a bit of difficulty opening his but did finally manage to open it... While simultaneously slamming it in his face.
"Ed! Are you alright?" Double D asked. Eddy couldn't help but laugh at Ed.
"What's so funny about your friend getting hit in the face?" A girl asked from behind Eddy.
The girl wore a purple shirt that showed her shoulders, red pants that showed her ankles and black boots. Her hair was jet black and her eyes were serious but not exactly angry, her lips were coated in crimson lipstick.
"Huh? Nothin', its not like Ed's actually hurt bad, besides the guy's my best friend. Who are you?"
"Janyse. I'm surprised you didn't learn it the first time considering we have the same homeroom." Janyse said sternly, glaring at Eddy, who glared right back.
The force of the locker door was enough to knock him down, several comics slid out of Ed's jacket.
"Hey, is he alright?" A boy asked. This boy wore a green shirt and blue jeans with blue sneakers, his hair was ragged and brown. He helped Ed up to his feet and then noticed some of the comic books.
"Hey, you read Evil Tim, too?!" The boy asked.
"Yeah! It's awesome!" Ed said in excitement.
The boy turned his attention to Janyse and seemed to be instantly smitten. January noticed this and gave him a friendly smile and a wave. The school bell went off and everybody, including Janyse headed to class.
"Oh, we can't be late to class on our first day. Thank you for helping Ed, um..." Double D said.
"Matthew, my name is Matthew, but you guys can call me Matt."
Ed would be separated from his fellow Eds for his first class and was more nervous than ever. He walked into the classroom and recognized nobody there... Well, almost nobody. There was a rather large boy wearing a blue shirt, red pants and a red baseball cap.
"Hiya, Ed!"
"James!"
Ed recognized James from his time in Peach Creek Jr. High and even though they didn't really talk to much, they were friends who chatted about the newest monster movie that was coming out. In fact, Ed actually got his iconic 'Baron O' Beef Dip' figure as a gift from him during his 10th birthday.
Even though he was nervoud about school, Ed thought that if he had his friends, he would be okay...
"Hey! Check it out, a cabin!"
Terry pointed out a wooden cabin surrounded by trees. It had no windows and two doors, ine in front and one in the back left. A wooden chimney struck out in the back center.
"How cliché..." Jimmy noted.
"Do you think someone lives in it?" Erin asked.
"Wait! Sshhh!" Tony hushed. Everyone listened and heard the voices of a group of men quickly approaching their location.
Nobody was sure what to do but there seemed to be three things they could possibly do...
Make your choice...
Option A: Hide in the wooden cabin.
Option B: Run away and keep heading to the compound.
Option C: Take the chance with the group of men.
The choice is yours...
End of chapter.
Additionally, if you readers are interested, I could include the data entries Double D and Kathy included in Ed's journal.