Ratings: Mature
Warnings: use of human name, zombies and subtle(?) homosexuality
Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Students at the local university are protesting, but this protest goes horroribly wrong! Then, a local high school is infested with zombies. Will the survivours survive for long? Find out in this week installment of HETALIA ZOMBIE THEATRE.
Note: I'll be doing this in weekly installments, to give me time to finish writing this monster (it's already over 6000 words and stil not even half way done)
HERE IT IS
Kiku frowned at the gathering of young people across the court yard.
‘Another rally...?’ he wondered, he had observed several in the past weeks. His hypothesis confirmed when a banner was unrolled and the young people erupted in excitement. ‘Do these people even know what they are protesting?’
In his many years of teaching, he had only found a few students that truly knew the depth and back story of what they were fighting for. This fact irritated him to no end.
One of them, the one always wearing the bomber jacket, stood up on the stage and seemed to be giving an impassioned speech to the engrossed crowd. He couldn’t tell what was being said, but those gathered there seemed to vigorously agree with the young man. He read the banner and frowned.
‘Soda pop...’ he read in disbelief, ‘Soda pop is what is stoking their passions.’ He shook his head.
‘American’s are weird.’ He had hoped that they would have been protesting at least something important. Like war, or nuclear bombs or human rights. But it wasn’t. They were getting all huffy about the fact that the university board was taking away their soda.
‘They’re only doing for their health, and it’s not like they can’t get it off campus.’ Kiku sighed, shook his head and turned away from the window. He couldn’t bear to watch the silly protest anymore.
‘Are they really that misinformed?’ he thought sadly, still shaking his head.
"Sickening, isn’t it?" a deep, quite voice asked in front of him. He quickly opened his eyes and gazed at the asker. It was Heracles, one of the more... thoughtful students on campus. The larger Greek sauntered closer to the window, right next to Kiku.
"You think that the university had the power to make the company discontinue the product." Kiku blushed slightly and nodded. It was hard to find people that agreed with him with him in America.
"To think that it’s soda pop that makes them want to change the world, not the fact that their economy is horrible, but a carbonated beverage." Heracles looked at the smaller man, smiling. Kiku continued, "It’s not even good soda."
Heracles chuckled, and Kiku turned bright red.
"I agree with you, Professor Honda, I tried drinking it once..." Kiku, still bright red looked away and mumbled,
"I’m no longer your professor, Karpusi-san; please stop referring to me as such. We’re friends now..." Heracles smiled,
"Only as long you call me Heracles." Kiku, if it was possible, turned a brighter and more brilliant red. Heracles found that he liked the colour.
Heracles quickly turned his attention back to the rally outside, so as not to embarrass his shy friend any further.
‘He’s so cute.’
He frowned when he noticed how... still all of the protestors suddenly were. They were just standing there, oblivious to the world around them.
‘They look kind of dead.’ He thought, shifting his attention to the man in the jacket on stage, he also seemed to be in the same trance as the other protesters.
"Kiku-"
"I see it too, Heracles," Kiku paused, the name sounded so alien coming off his tongue, "What do you think has them so entranced?"
Heracles chuckled,
"If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that the soda had finally rotted away their brains." The two laughed at their shared joke.
~
Matthew was constantly apologizing to those around him.
‘Honestly,’ he thought, trying to stay on his feet in the continually shifting crowed, ‘Why am I even here?’ he quickly apologized to the person who had elbowed him in the shoulder. As usual, people seemed oblivious to his presence.
‘I don’t even like this soda.’ he thought, fighting the flow of the crowd. He couldn’t stand to be here, he really couldn’t.
Not only did he think that this protest was stupid (because, honestly, there were much bigger things to worry about then having to go off campus to buy soda), he was also tired of being pushed around by all the pushy pop drinkers.
With one final push, his was finally able to break though the crowd. He sighed and winced as he sat down in the shade under a nearby tree. The only reason he was here was to ‘support’ his brother. Matthew snorted and rubbed his sore chest. Someone, early in the ‘protest’ (though the whole thing was very laughable to Matthew) had rudely elbowed him in the chest in their vigour to stretch their hands to the sky in agreement.
"What are you doing here?" he heard a deep voice growl behind him, "Shouldn’t you be protesting the ban of your precious carbonated beverages?"
Matthew tensed and turned around.
"U-um, no. T-that’s my brother." he gazed wide eyed at the larger man who had situated behind him, trying not to wince at the anger in the stranger’s dark eyes.
‘What did you do to this guy, Alfred?’ he thought, flinching slightly and turning bright red as the stranger leaned in get a closer look at him. Alfred...was difficult to get along with, and had a nasty tendency to get into fights with people for silly reasons. Needless to say, he usually won these fights. Sufficed to say, Alfred F Jones had many enemies on campus and they usually tired to even the score with Matthew.
You see, Matthew had the misfortune of being split from the same egg and sperm cell as Mr. Jones. Matthew couldn’t count all the times he had been mistaken for his brother by bullies looking for revenge.
The dread locked man closely scrutinized the sitting blonde. It wasn’t Alfred.
‘Alfred ain’t cute.’ he thought, pulling away. He suddenly felt bad for scaring the adorable blonde.
"Uhh," he sheepishly said, shifting his gaze to the side, "Sorry about that." Matthew blushed, none of the people looking to get even with his brother apologized, ever. It threw him off a little, dealing with the polite bully.
"It’s alright, it happens a lot." He sheepishly replied. The two were suddenly all too aware of the silence that had enveloped the court yard.
‘Is the protest over...?’ Matthew thought, looking in the direction that the protest was. The protesters were still there, just standing still and not making a single sound.
‘I’ve never seen a group of university students so quiet...’ the hairs on the back of Matthew’s neck started to stand up. Something was wrong. Very wrong. No group of young adults could stand this still and be this silent for this long.
Matthew dared to steal a glance at his former bully, hoping to somehow transmit his worry to the other. The other seemed to pick up on it instantly and nodded slightly, trying to make as little movement as possible.
It seemed that other spectators also seemed to be worried about the group. One brave soul wandered up to the still group and tapped one on the shoulder, trying to get her attention. It seemed in that moment, that the group came to life. The girl who’s attention that the brave soul was trying to get, growled, wrapped her arms around him and bit him on the neck. He was dead before he hit the ground; at least, Matthew hoped he was.
It seemed that the other protesters seemed to like that idea and started to slowly wander towards the others in the court yard. Matthew was suddenly eerily aware of the stage that the protesters had set up. His brother was still on the stage. For a brief moment, Matthew thought about running to him, just to make sure that he was alright. But then he realized that the likelihood of what happened to the brave soul not happening to him was slim, judging from the way the protestors were slowly making their way to his shady spot. Matthew quickly stood up, grabbed the confused black man by the wrist and quickly walked the both of them to the safety of a nearby building. The protestors were following them, he noted, walking that same eerie, slow saunter.
As soon as he locked the door, the former bully exclaimed,
"What the FUCK just happened?" Matthew looked to the rectangle of window in the door, noticing how one of the protesters face was pressed against it. The face looked pale, its visible eye seemed to be looking right at the pair and its mouth seemed to be forever open in some unearthly groan. Matthew unconsciously took several steps away from the door.
"I-I don’t know."
~
"Grandpa!" Feliciano called, peaking into his office. "Grandpa?" he repeated a little louder,
"Grandpa, where are you? We’re supposed to go get pasta!"
"Please be quiet, Mr.Vargas, your grandfather is in an important meeting." Feliciano smiled at the blonde man in the desk.
"Ludwig! Eat pasta with me~!" The secretary paused and blushed. The man did this almost every day; he should be able to block him out by now.
"I can’t, Mr. Vargas, I have work to do." he informed the younger man as he started to type again. Feliciano pouted,
"Ludwig, why do you never call me by my name? It’s always ‘Mr.Vargas’ and I don’t like it. It makes me feel old and you’re older than me!" Ludwig looked up at the smaller man, only to fall victim to his puppy dog eyes.
"Please?" Ludwig averted his eyes, his face bright red.
"Fine, Feliciano." Said man’s face lit up,
"See? That wasn’t hard now, was it?" He giggled, getting closer to the nervous German.
"Shouldn’t you be in school, Feliciano?" The Italian giggled, getting closer
"It’s exam week."
"Shouldn’t you be studying?"
"But I did all my studying!" The brown haired one whined, "I studied so much, it feels like my brain is made of rocks!"
Ludwig was about to say something when muffled shouts were heard from behind the closed, double doors.
‘That’s...not normal.’ he thought, his icy eyes suspiciously shifting to the doors. Usually the co-deans would go on to the roof to yell at each other...
Something was wrong. Very wrong, his grandfather was yelling in German. His grandfather never spoke German during a meeting.
"Meetings over!" Feliciano chipped, skipping over to the still closed doors.
"Feliciano, Stop." Ludwig ordered sternly, making the startled man pause. Feliciano looked at him, very confused,
"Why, Ludwig?" he asked, "The meeting’s over and now me and Grandpa can go get pasta!" he cocked his head to the side,
"Do you want to join us?" his eyes lit up, "Please join us! It’ll be fun! We’ll have pasta and wine and-" He was interrupted when the blond co-dean opened the door just a little.
"Get out of here." he ordered them hoarsely, "Now."
"B-but," Feliciano pouted, "What about the pasta?" The older German ignored him in favour of his own grandson.
They started to rapidly speak in German, the younger one’s expression in an almost constant state of change. Feliciano was confused,
‘Is something wrong with Grandpa?’ he thought, looking back and forth between the two Germans, ‘Is he ok?’
His question was nearly answered when he heard an unearthly groan coming from inside the office. The co-dean shouted a final thing a Ludwig, and then quickly shut the door. Feliciano could see the conflicting emotions play across the younger one’s face as he quickly stood up and walked to the now closed double doors. Feliciano could see his hand was shaking as he placed it on the golden lock. He heard his friend take a deep breath in and quickly twist his wrist, locking the door from the outside.
"Ludwig?" Feliciano asked, walking towards the saddened German, "Why did you do that? You know that they can’t get out if the doors locked from this side-"
"We have to go, Feliciano," Ludwig interrupted him, "Now." Feliciano, still a bit confused, let the larger man pull take his wrist and pull him out of the office. He looked back to the closed double doors. He noticed the blood that was now seeping from under the locked doors.
‘Grandpa?’
~
Peter frowned,
"Miss. Hisco?" he asked after his teacher hadn’t spoken for a while, "Is it ok for me to go? It’s lunch time and I’m hungry." he waited for his teacher’s response.
Receiving none, he assumed that he was free to go. He beamed,
"Have a good lunch Miss. Hisco!" He was completely unaware of the danger he was in.
"P-P-Peter!" he heard his best friend, Ravis hiss from the doorway, "Get over here!" Peter frowned when he noticed that his friend was much more nervous than normal.
‘Did he have another history test?’ he wondered, ‘If he did, lunch will cheer him up!’ Peter was completely unaware that his teacher’s corpse was right behind him, ready to strike at a moment’s notice...
She groaned when the young boy was pulled from her grasp. Ravis quickly grabbed the younger blonde’s wrist and pulled him out of the room, shutting the door behind them. His eyes darted around rapidly looking for anything that could be used to block the door. Leaving a confused Peter by the door, Ravis dashed across the hall, grabbed the abandoned mop, dashed back and quickly forced the poll between the handle. The corpse that used to be Miss.Hisco banged on the door, groaning and while the plastic mop handle did bend, it did not break.
Ravis panted, feeling the after effects of his mad dash. After a few terrifying minutes of trying to catch his breath, Ravis noticed that Peter was already half way down the hall.
"Come on, Ravis!" the younger one called, "Lunch time is only an hour." Ravis couldn’t believe it.
‘’lunch time is only an hour’ I just saved his life!’ he thought stunned, ‘Is he that oblivious?’ he thought stomping his way to the grade seven boy.
"Oh, and thank you for saving me from the zombie!" Peter beamed, giving the older boy a kiss on the cheek before continuing on his way, "Ravis looked so cool, saving us from the evil teacher zombie!"
Ravis stood in place, stunned and blushing. No one had ever given him any form of praise before. He followed his little friend to his locker, silent and keen of their surroundings.
After a while of walking down halls, Ravis’ nervousness returned.
"W-we should get out of here." He told the boy, his eyes shifting rapidly from side to side, "Who knows how many more," he gulped at the thought, "zombies there could be here." The boy ignored him in favour of fiddling with his locked locker. The seconds that ticked by felt like hours for Ravis, who’s nerves were wound tighter then a copper coil on a regular basis, this was not good.
"A-are you almost done?" Ravis impatiently asked the boy, getting more panicked and skittish with every word. The boy replied by carelessly throwing a text book behind him, almost hitting Ravis in the head.
"H-Hey!" he shouted, slightly angered by Peter’s actions, he then turned around to see if he could salvage the book. There, on the ground behind him, was a corpse. A corpse that now had a math book embedded in its skull. He suddenly forgot how to breathe.
"I got it!" Peter sang, "We can go now..." he trailed off when he noticed how pale his friend was. Ravis’ eyes suddenly rolled back and he fainted, his body at the mercy of gravity. He probably would have hurt himself too, if he was alone, but he wasn’t. Peter was there to cushion his fall.
"Ravis!" Peter cried, trying to get his dead weight off of him, "Now is not the time for a nap!"
Peter didn’t notice how his shout echoed throughout the halls, but some things did. Flesh hungry, slow creatures that really should have drank more water, started to slowly wander to the source of the shout.
"Ravis!" Peter shouted, struggling to free his leg from under the older man, "wake up! Wake up! Wake up~!" he wined
"You shouldn’t be so loud," a quiet voice echoed from within the next locker, it soon opened, reviling another of their friends, Lili Zwingli. She cocked her head and stared down at the tow,
"What happened to Ravis?" she asked, pulling at the unconscious boy’s pant leg, Peter shrugged,
"I donno," Lili then shifted her gaze to the corpse with the text book firmly embedded in its head.
‘Oh, so that’s what happened,’ she thought, leaning out of her hideout to check out the hallway. Her brother had always told her to be careful when ever dealing with boys and zombies (she found that he used the terms interchangeably). She was about to look away when she noticed a shadow on far hallway wall. She quickly looked to the opposite end; there were several shadows on that wall.
‘Oh dear,’ she thought,
"Peter, Can you help me drag Ravis in here? The zombies are coming." Peter frowned,
"How will we all fit in a locker?"
"It’s not a locker." Lili replied, grabbing the still passed out Ravis but the ankles, "Can you please grab his writs?" Peter did as he was told. Together, with some effort, they were somehow able to pull the sleeping Latvian into the passage. Peter looked around in surprise; he had no idea that his school was cool enough to have secret passages.
"H-" He was interrupted when Lili put her hand over his mouth,
"You have to be quiet," she whispered, "They’ll hear you." she pointed to the locker door. Peter squinted and couldn’t believe what he saw through the vents.
They were classmates of his, or at least they use to be. Instead of teasing or speaking to each other, they were just standing there, not saying a word. It was creepy, Peter decided, to see his classmates in such a state.