Sitting in one of the booths of the Dingo, an extremely nervous Sandy sat as she and Evie awaited the arrival of their boyfriends. Evie had encouraged Sandy to do this, telling her that Soda deserved to know the truth. He needed to know that Sandy was pregnant...and the baby was not his. At first Sandy thought she'd be able to avoid telling her boyfriend about what had happened.
Her parents had been so angry with her that they were going to send Sandy to Florida to stay with her grandparents. However, the chaos and confusion that began popping up over Tulsa caused those plans to change, at least until everything calmed down.
The jingling of the bell on the door had alerted her that someone had just walked in, and sure enough it was Sodapop and Steve.
"Hello, ladies." Soda smiled as he and Steve took a seat across from them. He tried to put on a brave face and be his usual, charming self. He did not want to let his girlfriend know how badly he was doing after what had gone down with Ponyboy. The waitress brought their cokes over and Steve and Evie started making small talk, but it didn't help calm the other girl at all.
"I'm sorry," Sandy apologized to the group as she got up. "I don't think that I can do this."
"Sandy-" Evie tried to get her best friend to sit back down.
Soda gently took Sandy's hand.
"What's wrong?" He asked, worried, putting his own problems aside. Sandy sat back down but was too ashamed to answer. She finally looked at her boyfriend and finally decided to just get it over with.
Then, a sudden roaring sound rocketed throughout the restaurant as the building rumbled.
Every table inside the diner violently shook as plates and silverware went crashing to the ground. The overhead lights flickered on and off. Across the street, the DX gas station had just exploded. Some idiot had apparently just drove into one of the pumps, and the car exploded with the pump, then the gas station itself quickly followed. It sent multiple large fireballs skyward, leaving the four of them speechless.
The sound of sirens could be heard quickly afterward, when suddenly, a greaser came stumbling into the diner. His hand was clutching at a deep wound on the side of his neck. Blood was gushing out of it as he collapsed to the ground, a pool of blood quickly began to form around his head as everyone in the place began running out of the Dingo in an absolute panic. Some pushed past the tables and chairs, others slammed into the doorframe in their haste, nearly tripping over each other as they stumbled into the street, desperate to escape. The door slammed open and shut with each frantic exit, creating a symphony of shouts, screams, and footsteps on the diner's worn tile floor.
"Steve, what the hell is going on?" Evie's voice was a high-pitched whisper, her face drained of color. Her eyes were glued to the greaser on the floor, whose body lay still now, his eyes open, staring at the ceiling with a look of frozen horror. Soda tore his gaze from Sandy to Steve, his expression mirroring the dread that was clawing its way up from his stomach.
"We have to get out of here," he said firmly, taking Sandy's hand and pulling her gently but insistently toward the door. "Something's wrong. Really wrong."
As they moved to the door, Steve hesitated, glancing back at the body on the floor. Part of him wanted to see if the guy was still breathing. He quickly ran over and knelt down next to him. Putting a hand on his shoulder, a chill ran down his spine as he noticed the strange paleness that had overtaken the greaser's skin, like something dark had taken root inside him, draining every bit of life.
Suddenly the guy lunged up. He managed to bite Steve on the top of his shoulder. Before he could sink his teeth really in, Steve managed to grab the guy's hair and spike his head back into the floor. Soda and Sandy were already out the door, the only one that had seen was Evie.
"Come on, Steve!" Soda called out, his voice urgent.
With one last gasp, Steve bolted up to his feet and followed them, his mind racing.
"Steve, are you alright?" Evie asked as he grabbed her hand.
"I'm fine."
The four of them burst into the night, stumbling onto the sidewalk just as another round of explosions echoed from a distance, causing the ground to shake beneath their feet. Across the street, people were screaming, scattering like ants as a wall of fire blazed from the remnants of the gas station. The flames were licking at nearby buildings, windows shattering from the heat, glass falling like jagged raindrops onto the pavement.
Sandy squeezed Soda's hand tightly, her face pale as she looked around, her lips trembling.
"Soda...what's happening?"
"I don't know." Soda shook his head, his mind reeling as he tried to make sense of the chaos. He looked down the street, where people were running and shouting, but there was something off about the way they moved, stumbling, jerking, almost like they were half-asleep, as if their bodies were moving independently from their minds.
This was like something out of a nightmare
Evie clutched Steve's hand tightly as they huddled near the corner of the building, half-hidden from the panicked crowd.
The air was thick with smoke and the acrid stench of burning gasoline. Sirens blared, distant but approaching, mingling with the desperate cries of people fleeing down the street. The small group of four glanced at each other, the horror of what they were seeing sinking in like a stone.
"Should we head back to Buck's?" Steve suggested, his eyes now wide with fear. "Maybe he'll know what's going on. Or at least he'll have somewhere safe to hole up until this blows over."
Soda hesitated, his gaze flicking to Sandy, who was shaking, her eyes wide with terror. He tightened his grip on her hand, feeling the weight of responsibility settling heavily on his shoulders. His mind was racing, torn between wanting to protect her and the unsettling feeling that something bigger, something worse, was coming.
Suddenly, a figure lurched out of the alley nearby. It was a woman, her dress torn and stained with blood, one arm hanging limply by her side as she staggered forward, her eyes glazed and unfocused. Her mouth hung open, lips pulled back to reveal teeth streaked with blood.
Steve took a step back, his pulse racing as he realized what he was seeing.
"What...what the hell happened to her?"
Soda pulled Sandy closer, watching in horror as the woman stumbled forward, her head lolling to the side, a guttural moan escaping her lips. She moved slowly, her feet dragging, but her gaze was fixed on them, unblinking and hungry.
The four of them backed away, hearts pounding, as more figures began to appear from the shadows, staggering toward them with that same unnatural, jerky movement. Their faces were blank, devoid of any spark of life, eyes dull and glassy.
"Run," Soda whispered, gripping Sandy's hand as he started to pull her down the sidewalk, away from the figures emerging from the darkness.
They broke into a sprint, weaving through the chaos of the street as more people began to scream and scatter, running from the growing horde. The flames from the gas station cast an eerie light on the scene, shadows dancing across the faces of the terrified crowd as they pushed and shoved, desperate to escape. Soda's mind was spinning, a thousand questions racing through his head, but he knew there was no time for answers now. All he could think about was getting Sandy to safety, getting away from whatever nightmare had taken over their town.
As they ran, he glanced over his shoulder, his heart sinking as he saw more figures pouring into the street, moving with that same slow, relentless pace, their eyes empty and unseeing. It was like something out of a horror movie, something that couldn't possibly be real, but it was.
They reached the end of the block, panting and out of breath, as they ducked into an alleyway, pressing themselves against the brick wall. Steve and Evie joined them, eyes wide with fear, their faces pale in the dim light.
"What...what are those things?" Evie asked, her voice barely above a whisper, her hand trembling as she clutched Steve's arm.
Steve shook his head, his own fear showing in his eyes. "I don't know...but whatever they are, we need to stay away from them."
Soda looked down at Sandy, who was clutching his arm tightly, her face a mask of terror. He wrapped an arm around her, trying to offer some semblance of comfort, though he felt as lost and scared as she did.
"We have to find somewhere safe," he said, his voice steady but his mind racing. "Somewhere they can't get to us."
They started thinking about the explosion at the gas station, the chaos that had erupted so suddenly, and the lifeless figures that had emerged from the shadows. Sodapop didn't know what was happening, but he knew they couldn't stay out here.
They turned and slipped through the alley, moving as quickly and quietly as they possibly could. The distant sound of sirens continued to wail, mingling with the desperate cries of the people they left behind. As the shadows closed in around them, they couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched, that something dark and hungry was lurking just out of sight, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
Every footstep echoed in the quiet, broken only by the wail of distant sirens and the occasional scream that punctuated the night air like a knife. Soda, Steve, Evie, and Sandy kept close, their eyes darting from side to side as they moved through the alleyways, the burning glow of the gas station still casting flickering shadows across the buildings around them.
Sandy clutched tightly onto Soda's arm, her grip tightening with every strange sound that seemed to scrape at the edges of the dark. Evie walked closely beside Steve, her breath coming in shallow gasps. She kept glancing behind them, as if any second, something might lunge out from the darkness and take them all down...
XXXXXX
Sandy was thinking back to that moment. It seemed like a lifetime ago, yet it had only been two nights. Currently, she was in the downstairs basement that Steve had just discovered. There were very few basements in the Tulsa metro area. The ones that did exist were almost entirely in pre-1960 homes. This house had been built in the year 1933. Sandy's mind kept drifting back to that night at the Dingo, when she'd almost told Soda everything.
Despite everything that had gone down, the guilt still continued to fester within her, even more relentless than the threat outside. What if she never had another chance to tell him? She shivered, feeling the ache of her secret burrowed into Sandy's chest, cinching around her heart, adding to her already shaky nerves.
At the moment, Steve was sitting on an old, nasty couch while playing with Evie's hair.
"This is perfect." Steve said as his eyes roamed around the whole basement area. "We can stay in here. If any of those people should break in the house, they'll never know we're down here."
"Are you sure about that?" Evie asked.
"Of course, I'm sure!" He snapped, making Evie jump. "They wouldn't be able to hear us, or smell us, however it is they track us. We can wait a few days until things calm down and the militia should drive right through here."
Back on the road, Ponyboy, Johnny, and Dally continued on as they now were only about two or three minutes from the house. Johnny wasn't saying anything, but he felt like he was about to faint. He didn't understand why. While Johnny was far from a great athlete, he was still in pretty decent shape, so it didn't make sense for him to be feeling so weak at the moment.
The last thing the trio passed while on foot was a van that had lost control of the wheel and spun around, ending up with the tail-end stuck in the ditch beside the roadway. They completely ignored the painful moaning from inside the van, a sound they were becoming all-too familiar with as a couple of those things began to tumble out of the vehicle.
On the front porch of the house, Darry and Sodapop were still waiting when Steve walked out to find his best friend.
"Come on." Steve directed once he saw Soda, still sitting out here. "Come down to the basement where it's safe." Steve was then about to ask why they didn't tell them their grandparents house had a basement when Darry responded;
"I'm not so sure that's a smart move."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, I'm not sure locking ourselves in that basement is a smart move." The older greaser repeated with a much harder tone. "Once Dally gets here with Ponyboy and Johnny, I want to go over all of our options before doing anything."
"What damn options?" Steve demanded as he became incensed. "And who the hell are you to decide for the rest of us!?"
"I'm not deciding for you at all, Randle. I'm thinking about my own life, and the lives of my brothers. If you want to go down there, go! No one is stoppin' you!"
The tension between Darry and Steve now was thicker than after the 'all brawn and no brain' comment, and Soda remembered how that had ended. Before he could say anything to help calm things down between the two of them, Ponyboy came running across the corner as finally, the house of his grandparents came into view. A bright smile appeared on his face when he saw Sodapop standing out on the porch.
"Soda!" Pony yelled and started running even faster. Soda turned his head and once he saw his younger brother, he quickly ran down the porch to meet him. The two of them grabbed each other in a tight hug, Ponyboy was so happy to see Sodapop that he could have bawled.
"Pony, y-y-your hair! Your tuff hair!" Soda exclaimed as he examined Pony's cut up, blenched blonde hair. His face was turning white as if it that was the most horrific thing Sodapop had witnessed over the last week.
Pony let out a small laugh but didn't say anything. By this point, Darry had carefully approached him, still afraid that Ponyboy might be mad at him. It had been Darry's fault that his youngest brother was out in Windrixville in the first place, but Pony had forgot all about it by this point as he threw himself at his oldest brother, a hug which Darry happily returned.
"Darry, I'm sorry."
His older brother gripped him even tighter.
"I thought we might have lost you." Darry spoke as he actually had tears forming in his eyes. "Like we lost mom and dad."
He then looked across the street to see Dally who had Johnny's arm thrown over his neck and was helping guide him to the house. His brows furrowed in confusion, wondering what had happened to Buck's T-Bird that Dally had been driving, but didn't have a chance to say anything as Dally spoke up in a loud demand; "He needs some water."
XXXXXX
The gang was all here now as the seven of them sat in the living room, listening to the latest news on the radio. Johnny was drinking from a glass of water, Two-Bit sitting next to him, the happiest that the gang had seen him in days. Two-Bit put a hand on Johnny's shoulder and lightly shook it.
"Feelin' better, Johnnycakes?"
Johnny nodded.
"A little."
That must have been it. Johnny was just dehydrated. Before the broadcast cut off, the last thing they had heard was the governor was sending the Oklahoma National Guard Troops to Bixby. It's supposed to be a safe zone. There have been no incidents reported there. Darry hung his head as he explained to Ponyboy that the truck outside barely had any gas left in it.
"Bixby is a thirty-mile drive from here." Darry finished. The rest of the boys were then told how the T-Bird had been totaled on the way to the house.
"So, we're stuck here." Pony sighed.
"Even if we could, who knows what'd we'd run into along the way." No one said anything after that. A feeling of helplessness came over all of them as the only option they had at the moment was to try and wait this out.
"Well, Pony. You're the smart one." Two-Bit finally spoke up. "What are these things?"
"The living dead, the undead. Flesh-eaters, walkers." Pony listed the names. "Call them what you want, they're zombies."
"Bullshit." Steve responded as he dismissively waved his hand. He had been leaning against the doorway, not sitting down with the rest of the group. "Walking corpses aren't real."
Steve had just the exact same thing to the rest of the gang right before they left town. He just refused to believe any of this, kept thinking there had to be some kind of rational explanation. At the moment, Steve wasn't exactly sure if he was trying to convince his buddies, or himself.
Dally had gotten up to look out the window. He swore under his breath as he saw a couple of those things outside, the ones from the van. The trio had inadvertently led them to the house.
"We've got company."
Rushing over to see what Dally was talking about, Steve's eyes widened when he saw them.
"Quick, let's head down to the basement." The door to the basement was right next to the living room.
"No, it's a death-trap." Darry insisted, still trying to win this debate. "They may be able to break through the door. If they do, we'll be cornered down there with nowhere to go. At least up here there's still some way to escape."
"A way out is a way in." Steve snapped. He then pointed. "The windows!"
"We can board them up. There are tools in the shed out back-"
"There's no time for that!"
"There's only four of them out there!" Darry then looked to Dally and Two-Bit. "We handled more than that getting to here, that basement door won't hold them."
"Oh, and the windows will?" Steve sarcastically remarked. He then turned his head to Soda. "You're not actually on board with this, are you?" He demanded.
"Look, I don't need this!" Darry shouted, under enough stress as it was. He was the oldest of the group, so he felt a certain responsibility to keep them all safe. "I told you before, you want to go downstairs, go on! Get!"
Ponyboy already knew what he was going to do. He was going to help his brother, no matter what. He just wasn't sure how Johnny and Dally felt about it.
"I'll help you, Darry." He looked back at Johnny who gave him a nod in return. That seemed to be what was needed to get Dally and Two-Bit on board. Sodapop looked in-between his older brother and best friend, thinking about what the right move to make was.
Finally, Soda got to his feet and went straight to the basement. Steve smirked as Darry turned away, throwing his arm up in the air with frustration before hearing Soda's voice say; "Sandy, come on up! We need your help!"
Steve now looked furious as he stared at his best friend in disbelief.
"Have you lost your mind!? This is crazy!"
However, Soda ignored him as he guided Sandy to the kitchen. "Get the shelves from the kitchen, we need to board up the windows."
"Soda, are you sure we'll be all right?" Sandy asked. Soda sighed as he nodded, hiding the truth that he wasn't sure at all.
The rest of the gang sprang into action. Darry and Dally went to the dining room. "Hey, Dally, give me a hand." The two of them overturned the dining room table. "Turn it over. Come on!" The two of them pulled the legs off the table as they carried it back to the living room, planning on using that to board up the largest window of the house.
Ponyboy and Two-Bit had gone out to the backyard to the toolshed and carried everything that they could use back to the house.
"There's only this one hammer." Two-Bit informed the guys, but fortunately the toolbox had plenty of nails. Johnny grabbed a wrench out of the box, deciding that would have to do. Going to the kitchen, Ponyboy came back with a metal tenderizer mallet. "Here, use this." While Darry and Dally held it, the rest of them began nailing the table to the wall, covering up the window.
"Nail it quick and dirty. Get the rest of the windows covered." Darry directed. "We'll reinforce them later."
As the gang split up to find different things that could be used to board up the windows, Steve had stayed by the basement door the whole time, watching the rest of them. Specifically, he was glaring daggers at Darry, which the older greaser finally noticed.
"When I shut this door, it stays shut until somebody comes who can get us out of here." Steve told him in a quiet fury, still angry that his best friend had chosen Darry over him.
Darry scoffed.
"If somebody like that comes along, I'll try to remember to call you."
"You're gonna die up here." Steve gave Darry an evil smirk before turning away to go downstairs. "You're gonna die."
The door closed and Darry heard the sound of it being latched. The older greaser had no idea what Steve's problem was and at the moment he really didn't care. All that mattered was getting the house secure. He, along with everyone else was unaware that within the area of the house, the number of zombies were starting to drastically increase in number.
Ponyboy gritted his teeth as he hammered nails into the wood with the mallet, his arms trembling from the effort. Each strike sent a hollow thud echoing through the room, almost loud enough to drown out the guttural moans coming from outside. Johnny's grip on the wrench slipped as he hammered the final nail, sweat trickling down his forehead. With the window finally boarded up, they exchanged a look, both catching their breath, silently hoping it would be enough.
Outside, the creatures moved closer, their dragging footsteps scraping against the dirt, their low, guttural sounds mixing with the rustling of leaves. Darry's jaw clenched as he hammered the last plank into place, the sound of it masking what felt like an approaching storm. He didn't know how many of them there were going to be, but he knew one thing...they were coming.