And now we flip over to Side B! For the most part, things will be different for Kevin's group. How different? Well, read on and find out!

"Well... Until we meet again..."

Kevin turned around, watching as Matt said his last goodbye to the Eds. He couldn't help but laugh to himself a little bit, it was hard for him to believe that there was once a time where he wanted nothing to do with the Eds and he'd be happy to be rid of them (the one time he was overly paranoid about their disappearance notwithstanding). But now, here he was, lamenting the fact that he might not ever see them, Sarah, Jimmy, or the Kankers ever again. For as much of a pain as they once were, and sometimes still were, he never really knew how much he valued their presence until now. As he looked over at his traveling group, he knew most of them felt the same way.

Once Matt rejoined the others, Kevin looked over the full group again. Keenan was someone he didn't know all that well, but from the short time Kevin and the others spent with him, they soon learned that he had a sharp eye and while there wasn't really a time where it was needed, Kevin felt comforted by the fact that Keenan had a sniper rifle on his back. He may not have lived on Rathink Ave., but he was still a resident of Peach Creek.

The same couldn't be said for Tony and Kathy, who were two out of the three residents of Lemon Brook. From the numerous football games the two had against each other, Kevin was familiar with Tony, at least in terms of his physical prowess. The guy wasn't bright, but he was built like a brick wall, just like Ed. The two probably would've been good friends if they interacted more. On the other end of the muscle spectrum was Kathy. But what she lacked in physical strength, she made up for in spades with her brains. She was just as smart as Edd was, heck, they wouldn't even be heading towards their destination at all if it wasn't for her. With the two of them in the group, they could be alright, at least for a while.

"Hey, you alright?"

"Huh?" Kevin let out, snapping out of his daze as he looked over at Nazz, who looked concerned.

"You look like you've got something on your mind." She said.

"Yeah..." The jock sighed. "I guess splitting up like this is a lot to take in."

"I know..." Nazz added, sighing right with him before perking up slightly, giving the boy a slight smile. "But, we've been through this before, right, dude?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, it's not exactly the same, but remember our first day of high school? All of us were freaking out so much, but things turned out alright!"

"Yeah!" Jonny interjected. For a little while Kevin forgot he was even there. "Plank almost wet himself out of panic, didn't you buddy?" The bald-headed boy held up his wooden friend with his usual chuckle. Despite how weird he and Nazz sometimes thought Jonny was, they couldn't help but find comfort in the familiarity of it all.

"Well, this is it!" Kevin said as he stood with the older kids of Rathink Avenue as they stepped off the bus to Peach Creek High School for the first time. He would have preferred to be in his classic outfit, but his mom assured him that 'making a good first impression is important' or some crap like that. So he found himself wearing a blue collared shirt with a brown vest and slacks and his hair, grown out just a bit more, neatly combed and without his iconic red cap. At least he was allowed to wear his favorite sneakers.

"Hiya, Kevin!" Ed called out, he and his fellow Eds wore the new clothes he thought he saw them wear before they tried joining the Urban Rangers. At least that's what Rolf told him they tried to do, he wasn't there for all of that. He recalled Nazz asking them about those clothes and apparently they were super cheap, thankfully these new ones they were wearing now looked like they were better quality.

"Oh hey, 'sup guys." He greeted, giving Eddy a fist bump.

"Ah, Kevin, it is good to see that you and the Ed-boys have gathered." The boys looked over to see Rolf, wearing a surprisingly good looking yellow and brown button-down shirt and tan slacks that looked brand new. Despite that, he also had on a knitted vest that he recognized as being made of a mix of sheep's wool and his family's body hair. He didn't know, nor did he want to know, how or why they made it, but he had long since told himself it wasn't worth the risk of offending him over it. He learned his lesson when he denied joining Rolf and the Eds in their 'Eels-in-the-pants' thing after Rolf and Eddy had that fish fight.

"Hey, Rolf, nice threads!" Kevin greeted, high-fiving his best friend as Jonny slipped over to the group in that stealthy way that he usually did. The wood-loving boy was also dressed up, wearing a purple collared shirt and black slacks alongside brown sneakers.

"Of course." Rolf sighed. "Mama and Nana have informed Rolf that it is customary for one to present themselves in a professional manner when attending secondary school for the first time. Though, Rolf would much prefer staying away from the cruel mental strain that is Western education."

"Nonsense, Rolf, I'm sure we'll learn to enjoy our new school!" Double D assured.

"Yeah, dude, just chill!" The boys turned to see Nazz walking up to them, her hair longer and matching well with her light blue blouse and tan pants. To this day Kevin didn't know how he couldn't just turn to jelly at the sight of her, especially with how she looked now. "Good to see you all dressed up!" She giggled.

"Y-Yeah, well, you know we gotta show everyone what the cul-de-sac is all about!" Kevin exclaimed, slicking his hair back and giving Nazz the best suave look he could muster.

"Well, everyone..." Edd began, composing himself as best he could as he turned to look at the front door of the school. "Let's make these next four years our best!"

'That was four years ago.' Kevin thought to himself. 'Four long years...' With one last look behind him, Kevin watched as the Eds' group, now dots in the distance, finally disappeared in the horizon behind them.

"So where do we go now, guys?" Jonny asked, cutting through the silence.

"For now I think we should be able to at least get out of this city. Even without the zombies, who knows what sort of freaks are running around here." Nazz replied.

"Right." Janyse nodded. "We have enough supplies for another day or so, so we won't need to resupply for a little while."

"Then we ought to keep moving. We should at least get out of the before nightfall." Kevin stated.

The group pressed on, remaining mostly silent as the traversed the empty streets of the city. The only noise coming from the occasional wandering group of zombies. Thankfully they were only around 1-4 in a group, making them easy to dispatch. Any larger groups were easily avoided, thanks mostly in part to Coco, Erin's dog. It still shocked everyone to see just how quiet and well trained the canine was, though the Lemon Brook cheerleader did say that the dog was once part of the K-9 unit of her father's police squadron.

When it came to Erin herself, Kevin was surprised to find out just how similar she was to Nazz. This was more with their personalities than their appearance though, as both girls had an interest in fashion, makeup, and so on, which helped them become friends pretty quickly upon first meeting. Part of him felt a bit guilty though, when he first saw her, she instantly caught his eye despite him kinda, sorta, being boyfriend-girlfriend with Nazz. At least that's what he thought he wanted. Sometimes there were times where she drove him crazy! But there were other times where she drove him crazy... It was weird. That was what kept him from really taking the initiative and talking to Erin, outside of the basic stuff that came with their current situation.

Kevin's thoughts could have kept going for a while had it not been for the sound of growling that rang through his ears. Everyone stopped as Coco took a step forward and growled some more.

"What is it, girl?" Erin asked, gently petting the dog's head and looking in the direction as her pet. The hound quieted down a bit, allowing everyone to listen as closely as they could for any noise. Sure enough, they could hear what sounded like a zombie growling and yelling at what sounded like a person.

"Stay here, I'll try to get a look at what's going on." Matt assured.

"Wait." Janyse called out softly, placing a hand on his shoulder. The two locked eyes before Janyse looked around before pointing at an apartment complex. "If something goes wrong, run in here. It's big enough for all of us to hide in while also giving us a chance to avoid anything that might follow us."

"Good thinking." Kevin agreed while Tony nodded. Jonny hurried over to the front door and tried to take a peek at what was inside, but had no luck.

"Hmm... Let's see if I still know how to do this." The wood boy said as he pulled out a screwdriver and bobby pin. "Good thing you and Rolf taught me how to do this, eh, Plank?"

It took him a minute, but Jonny did manage to unlock the door. His hand trembled a bit as he turned the knob, his screwdriver at the ready in case something awaited on the other side. Thankfully, the lobby of the apartment appeared to be empty. A few of the team entered the lobby while Kevin, Janyse and Keenan waited outside with Matt.

"Alright..." The Running-back said, facing Janyse and Kevin. "I'll go scope out what's going on."

Matt snuck towards the noise while those that waited for him armed themselves, just in case. The zombie's shouting grew louder as he peeked around the corner of a building. Matt was met with the sight of a Meth Monkey, fighting what was once a group of about four zombies, though the drug addict had managed to smash the heads of three of them. The druggie wielded a rusty pipe that had been bent and banged up to the point where it had bent into an almost pointed 'J' shape. Despite the fact that the man appeared to be winning the brawl, there were visible scratches, bruises, lacerations, and even large gashes on the man that he appeared to just ignore.

The zombie gave one last roar as it charged at the man, who simply swung the pipe one last time, splattering the innards of the zombie's head along the pavement.

"Woah..." Matt said to himself. The drug addict tried to pilfer the pockets of the zombies, but found nothing. After grumbling to himself for a moment, the man sniffed around for a bit before snapping his head in Matt's direction and locking eyes with the boy.

Matt stood in silent horror as he looked at the Meth Monkey in the eyes, one of which looked blue in color while the other was an almost sunken black. Matt didn't even want to know how that happened or how it was even possible. He also got a good look at the fact that the man was topless, and only wore a pair of tan shorts that looked slightly too big for him as they sagged at his waist, revealing a pair of tighty-whities that looked stained. Once again, Matt didn't want to know any further details. Instead, he only had one precious second to bolt away before he heard the Methhead shriek in anger and follow after the boy with shocking speed.

"Run!" Matt shouted as Janyse and Kevin came into his view. Kevin flinched a bit at the mere sight of the man while Janyse got her sledgehammer ready. As Matt ran past the two, the punk girl swung her hammer, striking the druggie right in the chest with a sickening crunch that made the boys cringe. The commotion got the attention of the others, who came to see what the shouting was about.

The group looked at the man in disgust... and then horror as he began getting back up to his feet, his shouting replaced with an angry choking as he growled at the teens, blood spurting out of his mouth. The man lunged at Janyse with his arms outstretched, the girl was barely able to react in time as she used her hammer to block his attack.

"Jesus, what the hell is this freak made of?!" She yelled. Kevin's hands shook a bit as he reached towards his backpack. Luckily, the survivors passed by an appliance store before they split into the two groups and one of the things Kevin picked up was a new weapon for himself. It wasn't the intended use of the tool, but the metal pipe wrench was something he felt he could wield comfortably and that he could make use of. Which he most certainly did as he swung the wrench right onto the head of the Meth Monkey. The crunch wasn't as sickening as the hammer's strike but it was enough to stop the man's attack, as he collapsed onto the ground in a heap, twitching ever so slightly as he raised his arms up.

"Brain damage..." Kathy said, her voice shaking a bit.

"Huh?" Keenan asked.

"That blow to the head gave this man brain damage. That's why he's shaking like that." She answered, shaking her head. "Whether it be from desperation, poor choices, or a release from the stress going on in this world, it's a tragic thing to see what was once a man turn into... into this..."

"I...uh... guess we should put him out of his misery." Matt piped up. "It's better than letting him suffer with that head trauma, right?"

Looking away, Matt pulled out a pistol and shot the man, his limbs finally coming to rest on the ground.

"It's probably not just him either." Jonny noted. "Plank says that if it happened to this guy, there's probably more guys like him. Not just in this city, but maybe across the country, and in Canada, too!"

"Yeah..." Kevin said. "We should probably get a move on before more guys like him, or even some zombies show up. Being in a city probably isn't a good idea right now."

The trek onward continued in silence. It was awkward, sure, but it allowed Kevin to go back to his thoughts. His mind wandered over to Matt, and how he got his position on the Peach Creek High football team as their Running-back.

"RUN AWAYYY!" Ed and Eddy shouted as the two of them ran out of the chemistry classroom with Edd and Matt in tow. The four boys had heard the Chemistry teacher shout something as he ran after them but with the speed they were all running and the sound of the smoke alarm, there was no way they could hear him.

"Oh, Eddy, I fear you've really done it this time!" Edd said in worry. "I warned the both of you that the combination of those chemicals would result in a catastrophe like this, but you and Matthew just had to egg Ed on!"

"Ah, quit yer gripin'! It got us out of class when that schmuck was keepin' us past three!" Eddy replied.

"Horrendous vocabulary isn't making me feel any better, Eddy..."

"Less talk, more running!" Matt called out as the four ran onto the football field.

"We are running in the nineties, guys!" Ed laughed as he ran straight into one of the tackling dummies, pushing it with very little difficulty. The three remaining boys stopped when they realized exactly where they were.

"Oh this won't end well..." Edd groaned. As he was about to raise his hands to his head to try and ease his oncoming headache, he accidentally caught a football that landed in his arms. As he scrambled to secure it, his eyes widened as he the gravity of his predicament hit him. "Oh dear..."

"Yo, Double D, what the heck are you guys doing here!" Kevin called out to the boys.

"Stop those ruffians immediately!" A man's voice called out. Edd, Eddy and Matt instinctively flinched as they ran across the field as fast as they could in order to escape the scrawny man that arrived onto the field, his thin frame was sporting a lab coat and black pants and dress shoes, his hair was normally white but was covered in soot, as was his whole upper body.

"Hey, our ball!" One of the other players called out as he and some other players ran after the boys. Hearing the players running after him, Edd looked down at the ball before throwing it to Eddy.

"Huh?! What the heck are you doing, Double D?!"

"You brought this issue onto all of us, Eddy!"

The shortest Ed ran onto the endzone for a moment before turning back around, the sight of the fence worrying him. Normally he could climb it with ease, but with the pigskin in his hands, it wasn't going to happen. Instead, he had to avoid the members of the football team that were giving him angry glares as they charged at him. Kevin, Rolf and Jonny looked on back at the starting point of this mayhem, unsure of what to do.

Eddy ran around and jumped past the players with relative ease, taking a moment to look back and gloat at the pigeons he had just avoided before he noticed the team's hulking linebacker charging him.

"Yo, Eddy!" Matt called, waving over to him. Understanding quickly, Eddy tossed the ball up in the air and kicked it over to Matt, who easily caught it and ran back towards Kevin's side of the field, bringing all the attention onto him.

"The Ed boys and wily-boy Matthew are avoiding the fury of the team with aplomb!" Rolf noted while Jonny nodded in agreement.

"What is going on here?!"

Everything froze when the sound of Principal Antonucci's voice rang throughout the field, everyone turned to see him with the team's coach in tow.

"I leave for five minutes and I see all this going on! What happened?!" The coach asked.

"We, uh..." Kevin stuttered before three of the four troublemakers joined everyone.

"We we're just trying out for the football team!" Eddy said with confidence. "We overheard Kevin and the rest of the team telling everyone they were having tryouts, so we decided to hurry out of class and come here to show off what we can do!"

"Those ruffians made a complete mess of the chemistry lab!" The chem teacher began.

"We would've missed our tryouts if we were late getting out." Matt shrugged. "Besides, we followed the instructions that were given to us exactly as they were presented. There was a typo on the worksheet!"

"Those boys are lying!" The science teacher hissed. Antonucci looked over at Edd, Eddy and Matt for a moment. Each boy was sporting a different expression, with Edd looking nervous, Matt trying to keep a look of innocence, and Eddy sporting his usual cocky grin.

"I'm well aware of the antics Eddy's brother would get up to, and I anticipated that Eddy himself might be similar." Antonucci began before smiling at the boys. "But I know Eddward from my tenure at the Middle School, and while he did have an occasional slip-up, he is a good egg, and he's managed to keep his friends under control. So surely this isn't as much of an issue as you're making it out to be, Clancy."

"But, but...!" The professor stammered before growling and giving Eddy one last glare before walking away in a huff.

"So, you boys wanted to try out for the team, eh?" The coach said. "Well, after what I just saw, I think we've got a few spots you boys can definitely fill!"

"No foolin'?!" Eddy asked in excitement, much to Edd's chagrin. Most of the team looked shocked and confused at the sudden news as well. Suddenly, Ed joined the group, still pushing the dummy forward as he ran and unintentionally knocked Edd down.

"GOOOOOAAAAAALLLLL!" He shouted.

"Well, guess you dor- I mean, you guys are on the team now..." Kevin said, helping Edd up.

"Splendid..." Edd sighed.

Kevin couldn't help but chuckle to himself at the memory. Soon after the Eds made it onto the team, the Kankers got onto the cheerleading squad, well, more like they forced their way in but that's kind of what they always did. He still remembered Nazz's flabbergasted expression when they declared themselves as in and somehow had already gotten uniforms. They tried getting Janyse to join but she managed to convince those girls to leave her out of it, even if Marie wasn't too keen on being on the squad either.

Still, despite all of that chaos, he remembered their coach telling the team after the season of their senior year ended that ever since the boys of Rathink Ave (at least aside from Jimmy, who joined the cheerleaders) joined the team, they've had some of their best seasons in years. Kevin had already gotten a few letters from colleges regarding scholarships, as did some of the other guys, and at the time he was ecstatic, but now...

"How much longer 'till we get out of the city?" Jonny asked as he clutched Plank close to him. "You guys know I don't like big cities, them being so empty like this makes them even creepier!"

"It shouldn't be too much longer now, just take deep breaths." Nazz assured, giving the nature-loving boy a sweet smile that seemed to calm his nerves.

Keeping as much distance away from the group as possible, a man in military fatigues trailed the group, a walkie-talkie clutched at his side.

"They're coming up on the subway." He said. After a moment, a gruff sounding voice replied from the radio.

"Understood. We'll flank them, regardless of if they take that route or not. General Dobson, sir, should I continue tracking them?"

"Keep on their tail and make sure the girl stays alive. Dobson, out."

"Check!"

The sun continued to hang high in the sky when Erin and Nazz spotted the subway sign. It didn't take too long for the group to hurry over to see what was in store for them in the subway and, sure enough, they did spot a stairwell going down into the underground subway station. However, the path there was not exactly clear as a horde of zombies walked and wandered around the road past the stairwell. The gang could easily head downstairs if they were quiet enough, which looked to be fairly easy, but then another issue reared its head: nobody knew exactly what was down there.

There could certainly be more zombies down there, or perhaps more Meth Monkeys, or maybe even something much worse. There was truly no way any of them could know. This wasn't to say dealing with the zombies was preferable, as they outnumbered the group heavily with the nine of them against what looked to be about thirty zombies. This wasn't including how many would swarm to their location should those undead be alerted.

"Ah man, what do we do?" Tony asked.

"There appears to be pros and cons to both choice." Kathy began. "While the subway may be a potential shelter for us, there may also be other parties within that general area."

"What do you think, Kev?" Matt asked as all eyes turned to the jock. Even the soldier who was spying on the gang watched him closely.

Make your choice:

Choice A: Head into the subway

Choice B: Risk fighting the zombies

And that will be the end of this chapter. It's shorter than the previous one, but that was mostly because that was technically a finale to that part. This one was also a bit less action-packed and perhaps a bit slow, but that was mostly done to try reintroducing this group. The coming chapters will bring more action, colorful characters, and choices that affect the story.

Until then, I hope you enjoyed this start of "Side B".