(no subject)

[out_briefcandle]

Written for my NaNo back in November and never posted. Incomplete. There is no more beyond this at the moment, either.



Chapter 2: Something Rotten

The students were unusually subdued as they gathered their belongings and headed out the door, Fred, Jim and Eddie had met up on the way out and Amy caught up with them as they were walking out the door. “Do you mind if I walk with you guys? I’m going the same way after all.”

“Yeah, of course.” Fred ushered her over with a light hand on her shoulder. “You’re always welcome, you know that.” Eddie and Jim nodded and they started off down the sidewalk.

“Thanks, guys.” She grinned brightly at them for a moment, then grew serious again. “Where’s your brother, Fred?” She looked around for Drew, who was also in the play.

“He’s not here today, we weren’t going to get anywhere near where he comes in so Fenner said he could leave.”

“Oh, okay.” Amy fidgeted awkwardly with the end of her ponytail as they went down the stairs. “Do you think we’re really going to be evacuated? Is it really that serious?”

“I don’t know.” Eddie shrugged and pushed his backpack higher on his shoulder. “I hope not.”

“Me too, I don’t know what we’ll do if we have to evacuate.” Fred frowned, looking a little worried. “The van’s in the shop and I don’t know when we’ll get it back. Something blew and they don’t know what yet. We might just have to get a new one, but we haven’t had a chance yet.”

“That sucks, man,” Jim said sympathetically. “I’m sure we’ve got enough empty seats between us for everybody, right guys?” Eddie and Amy murmured agreement and Fred smiled slightly.

“Thanks, guys. I appreciate it . . .” He trailed off as a police car pulled up beside him and rolled it’s window down. A police officer leaned out of the window.

“Hey kids. I don’t know if you’ve heard about the chemical spill, but this area’s being evacuated. You’d better get home.”

“We’re on our way home now,” Eddie called back. “Thanks, Officer Martin.”

“No problem, Ed. I’ll let your dad know I saw you.”

Eddie waved as Officer Martin rolled up his window. “Thanks!” The police car drove off and the teens looked at each other. “I guess that answers that question.”

“We should probably hurry,” Fred said. The others nodded nervously and they started walking again, a little more quickly this time. “I wonder what could have spilled, I’ve never heard about anything like this before.”

“Yeah. I haven’t either.” For a few more minutes as they walked they could see police officers knocking on doors, and confused looking families packing themselves into cars to leave town. Soon, however, there were fewer and fewer people and cars on the street, and before they knew it the town seemed almost abandoned.

Amy nervously moved a little closer to Fred. “Where’d everybody go? They can’t all have left yet, there weren’t enough cars going by.”

“Yeah . . .” Eddie looked around, a little worried. “Let’s get out of here, there’s something weird going on.” The group turned a corner, and paused. There was actually someone there, but he didn’t look well. He was shuffling down the street, lurching awkwardly from side to side. They glanced at each other in confusion, and Jim called over to the man.

“Hey, buddy, are you okay?” There was no reply, and Jim tried again. “Hey! Guy! Are you okay!?”

The man turned towards them and they gasped, he was pale and slightly greenish, as if he was ill. His eyes were bloodshot, glazed and staring, he didn’t look like he could actually them. His face was completely slack, his eyes were half shut and his mouth was hanging open. There was something incredibly wrong with this man, and it wasn’t the flu.

“He looks like a zombie,” Jim whispered, and the others nodded dumbly in agreement.

“Maybe we should go.” Amy tugged nervously on Fred’s and Eddie’s sleeves. “I don’t like this, we should get out of here.”

“I think Amy’s right, we should go,” Eddie said. “We’re supposed to evacuate anyway.”

“Yeah, lets go,” Fred started to turn away, but Jim grabbed his arm.

“Wait, he’s coming this way,” Jim hissed, and when Fred looked back, sure enough the man was shambling in their direction. Jim took a few steps toward it. “Hey, guy, what’s up?” The man continued moving toward them in silence, Jim took another few steps, and then all hell broke loose. The man suddenly launched himself toward Jim and grabbed at his neck. Jim yelled in surprise and Amy shrieked. “Hey! Get him off me! Get him off me!” Fred and Eddie jumped forward and tried to pull the man off of their friend, but he seemed far stronger than he should have been. Amy grabbed Jim’s arm from behind and tried to pull him back, but the man had too strong a grip on Jim’s arm. Jim got one of his arms free and after fumbling at his belt for a minute, jabbed something into the man’s stomach and he sagged in Fred and Eddie’s grip. They threw him to the ground and the four teenagers bolted back the way they had come, not stopping until they had run almost a block and a half. “He was trying to bite me!” Jim gasped once he’d begun to catch his breath. “He was trying to bite me!”

“Why would he be trying to bite you?” Fred asked once he’d caught his breath. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“I don’t know, but he was! You saw him, he was like some kind of zombie or something! I bet he wanted to eat my brain!” Jim looked terrified, and the others couldn’t blame him.

“Everybody just calm down. We’ll just go a different way, get home, and get the hell out of here, alright? This is probably why they wanted everyone to evacuate.” Eddie waited for them all to nod their agreement before continuing. “Come on, we’ll go down Elm Street instead.”

“Let’s hurry. Please.” Amy gripped Fred’s arm tightly for reassurance and the boys nodded. The set out down another street in near silence until Eddie noticed Jim fiddling with something in his hands.

“What are you doing?” He leaned over to get a better look and Jim held up his open multitool.

“Getting my knife out, that guy was trying to kill me.” Jim closed the tool with a good sized knife sticking out and looked around the street nervously.

“Don’t be paranoid, Jim,” Fred said. “And put that thing away, you’re going to hurt somebody.”

“That’s the idea,” Jim said darkly, and before Fred could retort a loud rattle from behind a trash can made them all jump. Jim spun to face the noise with his knife held out in front of him. They stood there for several tense moments, waiting, until finally the source of the noise appeared. It was a small Russian blue short hair cat, and Jim sighed in relief. “Tiger, what are you doing here? Don’t worry guys, it’s just my cat.”

“It’s never just a cat,” Amy responded in a slightly sing-song tone as Jim went to pick up Tiger. “Besides, are you sure it’s your cat and not some evil zombie cat that’s going to eat your face?”

Jim rolled his eyes and held up one of the cat’s front paws. “Of course I’m sure. See, she’s got six toes on her right front paw.” He scratched Tiger’s head affectionately. “She didn’t mean to scare us.”

“Right,” Fred sighed. “Lets just keep moving, alright? I don’t want that guy to follow us.”

There were no objections, so they continued on. It didn’t take them long to reach Elm Street, but when they turned the corner they all stopped dead in their tracks. Ahead of them, wandering around the street, were six more people who all looked the same as the man that had attacked Jim before.

“Maybe we should go another way,” Amy whispered, but apparently the quiet sound was enough to attract the attention of the people that Jim had dubbed “Zombies.” They all turned as one to stare blankly at the teenagers before starting to shamble towards them.

“Back to the school,” Fred said. “Now.” The four turned and started to run, but before they had gone half a block Tiger squirmed out of Jim’s arms and bolted for the bushes.

“Tiger!” Jim started to go after her, but Fred pulled him back.

“Leave her, she’ll find her own way home.” He had to drag Jim for another half a block, but finally Jim stopped looking back after his cat and kept running. All the way back to the school they continued catching glimpses of people in the streets, all of them stumbling along in the same, dazed way. They ran along in almost complete silence until they were almost at the school, then they stopped under the cover of some bushes near the edge of the school grounds. They scanned the expanse of open space between them and the building nervously, the lawn had never seemed quite so large before.

“Do you think it’s still open?” Amy whispered nervously. The others looked at each other and shrugged.

“The question is, has anyone inside been turned into a zombie?” Amy flinched and Fred gave Jim a light slap upside the head.

“Stop calling them zombies, Jim.”

“But they are zombies! That guy tried to eat my brain!” Jim sounded genuinely frightened.

“You’re overreacting, Jim. Amy’s got a point, though. Let’s try the theatre door, that’s usually open later than the school’s is.” Eddie was right, as usual, and the group snuck across the street to hide in the row of bushes that lined the side of the school grounds.

“What if Mr. Fenner locked it when he left?” Amy asked. No one had a good answer to that other than “well, we’re screwed,” so there was silence until Fred pointed at the parking lot across the street.

“Look, there’s his car, he must still be here.” It was the only car in the lot, but it was indeed Mr. Fenner’s.

“But what if he’s a zombie?” Jim was starting to sound panicked, and it was making everyone at least a little stressed.

“Shut up about the zombies, Jim.” Fred’s voice was harsher than usual and both Jim and Amy flinched slightly. “Everything’s going to be fine.” Jim fidgeted nervously and tugged at the hem of his red t-shirt, but didn’t argue. “Now, come on. We’re going to try the door, if Mr. Fenner’s inside it should be unlocked, or he can open it for us.” He looked around to see if any of the “zombies” had followed them, when he didn’t see any he gestured for the others to follow him. They ran across the street and over the lawn to the theatre doors, and Fred and Eddie tugged desperately on the theatre doors. To everyone’s surprise they swung open easily and the four ran inside, shoving the doors closed behind them.

Amy peered out the window in the door. “We should lock them.” Eddie shook his head.

“Other people might need to get in here, we don’t know how many of those things there are.”

“That’s why we should lock the door!” Jim looked out the other door nervously. “What if they follow us?”

“Stop being paranoid, Jim,” Fred said as he looked around the theatre lobby. “There’s nobody out there, anyway.” He moved to open the doors into the house itself but they opened just before his hand touched the handle the door was opened from inside. Fred jumped back and Amy squeaked in fright, but it was only Mr. Fenner. He looked just as surprised as any of them.

“What are you kids doing here?” They glanced at each other, not sure how to describe it. Finally Jim spoke up.

“I got attacked by a zombie.” Fred and Eddie groaned, and to their surprise Mr. Fenner didn’t look nearly as confused as they would have expected.

“We ran into them, too,” he said, and another voice piped up from behind him.

“They slashed our tires or something.” Mr. Fenner opened the door wider and they could see Mrs. Fenner, their sons Tim and Chris who were playing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and their younger nephew Cory who had been cast as Osric. Tim waved from where he was sitting. “That’s why we’re still here.” The small group grinned in relief and Mr. Fenner let them into the theatre. He locked the door behind them and the four of them dropped into the seats.

“We couldn’t get home, we kept running into them,” Eddie said. “Are they why we were supposed to evacuate?”

“I think so,” Mrs Fenner said as Mr. Fenner returned to his own seat. “On the news they were talking about the possibility of an epidemic, I suppose that’s what they meant.”

“So now what?” Amy asked. We hole up in the theatre and hope it goes away? What about our parents, they won’t know to look for us here and they probably won’t leave without us . . .”

“There’s a phone in the boxoffice,” Mr. Fenner soothed. “I don’t have a key, but I’m sure we can find a way in so you four can call your parents.”

“That would really help, thanks, Mr. Fenner.” Fred grinned in relief, he didn’t want his family stuck at home waiting for him with chemically-induced psychos around, especially with his dad away.

“Come on,” Mr. Fenner said. “Let’s go break into the box office.” Mr. Fenner led the four up the aisle to the doors, but before they reached them, they rattled violently. The students froze, startled, and even Mr. Fenner paused before continuing to the doors.

“I’m sure it’s just some more students who need help getting home,” He reassured them as he went to look through the window. “There’s nothing to worry . . . about . . .” Mr. Fenner froze as he looked out, and he suddenly came away from the window and waved everyone toward the stage. “It’s not students. We’d better go out the back.”

They all started for the front of the house without arguing, Mrs. Fenner kept her children in front of her and kept looking back over his shoulder nervously.

“Is it the zombies again?” Jim looked panicky, and he was holding his multitool with the knife out again.

“Yes,” Mr. Fenner said shortly. The doors rattled again, and Amy squeaked as she latched onto Fred’s arm in fear. “We’ll go out the back and into the school, and lock the door behind us.” There was another loud rattle, it was like the zombies were trying to break down the door with a battering ram. They ran through the stage door of the theatre and pushed it closed behind them, Mr. Fenner pulled out his key ring and locked it behind them just as they heard a loud crash from the house.

“I think they came through,” Jim whispered. Mr. Fenner nodded.

“This door is steel, though. They wouldn’t be able to break it down.” Jim didn’t look entirely convinced.

“Are you sure? I don’t want to get my brain eaten!”

“You are not going to get your brain eaten, Jim.” Mr. Fenner tugged on his shoulder lightly to make him move faster. “Everything’s going to be fine.”

“How is everything going to be fine? There are zombies breaking into the theatre!” Jim looked back over his shoulder worriedly. “I fail to see how this is okay in any way!”

“Jim just stop worrying already!” Chris hollered at him, and Jim was about to yell back when he looked over his shoulder again and saw people behind them.

“Uh . . . guys?” There was genuine fear in his voice and Chris stopped in mid yell. “I think we’re being followed . . .” The others looked back and several of the boys muffled curses. “There are zombies and they are following us!”

“Faster, head right at the end of the hallway. We can go out the back.” The others followed Fenner’s advice and turned down the hallway toward the back doors, when suddenly Fred went down with a crash and a startled cry.

“Fred!” Amy and Eddie skidded to a halt and grabbed Fred’s arms to pull him up. Jim stumbled against the wall to wait for them, and Fenner waved his family on before turning back to make sure that Fred was alright. Fred grimaced when he got back to his feet and leaned heavily on Eddie, who looked worried. “Are you okay, man?” Fred nodded tensely, and they were all surprised by an angry yowl from the floor by his feet.

“Tiger!” Jim jumped forward and scooped up the little cat. “How’d you get in the school? I thought you ran away!” The others stared at him incredulously and Fenner started waving them on down the hallway.

“Come on, we have to keep going.” They looked back down the hallway at the zombies shuffling after them and Jim took off like a shot. Fred tried to run, but after only a couple steps he fell back against Eddie’s shoulder with a sharp intake of breath.

“Fred, are you sure you’re okay?” Eddie shifted to support more of Fred’s weight, looking worried. He nodded, gritting his teeth.

“I’m fine. It’s nothing. Just keep going.” Eddie and Amy glanced at each other, and Amy slid under Fred’s other arm.

“Alright then, lets go.” Fred looked like he was about to protest, but Eddie slapped the back of his head and he shut up. They started back down the hallway at a much slower pace, Fred leaning on their shoulders and trying not to put too much weight on his right foot.

Eddie looked up at Mr. Fenner with a strained smile. “You can go on ahead, Mr. Fenner. We can handle this.”

“No, just keep moving.” Eddie tried to protest but he was interrupted by Jim running down the cross hallway in front of them and screaming in panic. They hurried further down the hallway to see what was going on and Jim popped back into view.

“Zombies!” Jim screeched, pointing back down the way he had come, the way Mrs. Fenner and the three boys had gone.

Mr. Fenner looked after his family, pale with fear. “You four go that way,” he said, pointing the way Jim had been running. “You can get out through the cafeteria.” He turned to go after his family, toward the zombies. Amy reached after him as if to grab his arm and pull him back, but stopped. They watched him go in silence for a moment before turning and heading toward the cafeteria as quickly as Fred’s leg would allow them. Jim hovered around them with Tiger still clutched to his chest, not wanting to leave his friends but wanting out of their as soon as possible. He looked back over his shoulder and squeaked.

“They’re following us! They’re coming! Fred! You must hobble faster!” Fred gritted his teeth and did his best to move faster, it seemed like ages before they reached the cafeteria doors. Finally they did and they ran through, Jim and Amy threw the doors closed behind them and pushed a table up against them in an attempt to keep the zombies from coming through while Fred sinks gratefully to the ground against the wall. Eddie dropped to his knees next to him and tugged up his pant leg to take a look at his ankle. Fred tried to wave him away.

“I’m fine, really. It just hurts.” Eddie slapped his hand away and took another look.

“You’re not alright, you’ve sprained it at least. Your ankle’s the size of a softball, I’m surprised you can move it at all.” He glanced up at Fred, who’s guilty expression told him that no, he really couldn’t move it. Eddie rolled his eyes. “If you’d broken your leg, you’d still be trying to convince us that you’re fine, wouldn’t you?”

“Probably,” Fred replied sheepishly. Eddie sighed and called toward the others. “Hey Amy, could you check in the kitchen to see if there’s some kind of first aid kit or something? Fred needs his ankle wrapped.”

Amy’s eyes widened and she called over her should as she darted toward the kitchen. “Is he okay?” Fred rolled his eyes.

“I’m fine, Eddie’s overreacting.” Eddie smacked him upside the head with a mild glare, and Fred stuck his tongue out at him. Amy caught them at it as she entered the kitchen and heaved a sigh.

“Boys.” Fred and Eddie both snickered, while Jim stuck his head up over his lunch table barricade.

“What’d I do?” Fred and Eddie fell over laughing and Amy threw a crumpled napkin at Jim from the kitchen, it fell several feet short.

“Nothing, Jim. Fred’s just being an idiot, and Eddie’s encouraging him.” She exited the kitchen carrying a large box labeled ‘First Aid’ under her arm.

“I am not!” Fred protested, and Eddie elbowed him.

“You sprained your ankle, you’re not fine. Amy, is there a bandage in there?” She shrugged as she put the box down sat cross-legged on the floor in front of them.

“I don’t know, I haven’t looked yet. It might just be band-aids and stuff.” She got the box opened and looked through it, dumping about half of it on the floor as she went. “Nope, just band-aids, and stuff for cuts and burns and things like that. We’d probably have to go to the nurse’s office for a brace or something.”

“Which we can’t do, because we’re stuck in here.” Fred started to untie his shoe, which was becoming uncomfortable with the way his ankle was swelling.

“If you take your shoe off you probably won’t be able to get it back on,” Eddie said, and Fred grimaced in agreement.

“Probably not, but it’s starting to really hurt from the way it’s squeezing my ankle.” Fred finished untying his shoe and loosened it as much as he could so that he could ease it off with as little trouble as possible. He pulled his backpack off to shove it inside, he did not want to lose the shoe entirely, and when he looked back up he saw Tiger staring at him over the side of his leg. “What are you looking at, cat?” She stared at him calmly for another moment, then started nonchalantly washing her face. “Jim, I don’t think your cat likes me.”

“Nonsense, Tiger likes everybody.” Jim finally stopped pilling things in front of the door and joined them. Fred gave him an incredulous look.

“She tried to kill me. What’s she doing in the high school, anyway?” Jim scooped up the cat protectively.

“She wasn’t trying to kill you! How could she have known that we’d come running down that hallway? I don’t know what she was doing in here, though. Maybe the zombies scared her and she came in here to hide.” He kissed Tiger on the head. “Was that it? Were you scared of the nasty zombies?” The cat meowed pathetically and snuggled up to him and Fred grumbled about kitty chow mein under his breath. Amy rolled her eyes at the boys.

“Guys, we really should be figuring out how keep the zombies out, or how to get them to go away . . .” She trailed off with a startled squeak as the doors rattled loudly. All four of them slid lower to avoid being seen and stared at the door in silence as it rattled again. And again. And again. And then there was silence. None of them moved for a minute, afraid that the slightest sound might bring them back. Finally Amy spoke up in a tiny, frightened whisper. “Are they gone?”

“I don’t know.” Fred tried to see through the windows in the cafeteria doors, but he couldn’t see anything from the floor. “Jim, go see if they’re gone.”

“What, me? No way, man. Haven’t you ever seen a horror movie? Rule number one: don’t open the door. The bad thing is always waiting for the person to open the door. I don’t wanna die, man!” Jim sounded genuinely terrified, but Fred just stared at him.

“. . . I meant to look through the window.” Jim looked started.

“Oh. I didn’t think of that.” Eddie sighed and started toward the doors.

“Never mind, Jim. I’ll look.” He carefully climbed far enough up the barricade to get a look through the window and called back. “It’s okay, they’re gone. Nobody’s coming to eat Jim’s brain that I can see.” Fred snickered and Jim looked offended.

“Hey, they could’ve been out there! You didn’t know! I could’ve opened the door and they’d have grabbed me and eaten my brains and you’d all have just been sitting here and watching and I’d have been eaten.”

“Okay, Jim. They’re gone now, anyway, there’s nothing to worry about.” Amy patted him on the shoulder. “Guys, we really should figure out how to keep them out if they come back, the barricade might not hold next time.”

“They are gonna eat my brain!” Fred reached over to smack Jim on the side of the head, then carefully pushed himself to his feet, being careful to keep most of his weight on his uninjured foot.

“Amy’s right, we should check and see what’s in the kitchen, maybe we can find something in there. Something other than chairs, anyway.”

“Fred, you should stay off of that foot!” Eddie spotted him and started over. “You’ll just make it worse if you walk on it.” Fred waved him off and started limping toward the kitchen.

“It’s fine, it’s fine, you worry too much.” Eddie gave him an irritated look and stepped under Fred’s arm, pulling it over his shoulder and taking some of Fred’s weight.

“Maybe I worry too much, but you could get hit by a car and you’d still be insisting that you’re fine.” His look dared Fred to argue, which of course he couldn’t. Fred had always been the type to brush off broken bone as a scratch. Fred grumbled as Eddie helped him towards the kitchen, but whether he would admit it or not he needed the help, at least until he could get his hands on a brace and possibly crutches. When they made it to the kitchen they closed the door behind them in an attempt not to be noticed if the zombies decided to come back. Amy and Jeff were already going through cabinets and drawers to find anything that could possibly be used for defense against the zombies. A large pile of cutlery already covered one of the prep tables. Eddie and Fred looked at it in confusion. “Hey Jim, what’s with all the forks?”

“I’m trying to find weapons in case the zombies come back. I’m dumping everything sharp on that table, we can figure out how to use it later . . .” He dumped another drawer full of cutlery onto the table with a grin. Now they won’t try to eat my brains again!”

“They aren’t going to eat your brains, Jim.” Fred sifted through the stack of stainless steel and pulled out one particular utensil, staring at it incredulously. “Jim, how are we going to protect ourselves from zombies . . . with a spoon?”

“Well, I thought they would come in handy?” He fidgeted awkwardly. “You could . . . poke their eyes out with them or something? Oh, I know! Use the spoons to carve out their hearts so they don’t come back to life!” The others just stared.

“. . . Jim, you’re disturbing sometimes.” Jim looked at Fred with an offended expression. “What, don’t you think it’s a good idea?”

Fred studied the spoon for a minute, then poked Jim with it. “Yeah, Jim. They’re really dangerous.” Jim pouted for a moment, then picked up a spoon and poked Jim back.

“I’d like to see you do better.” Fred poked him again, they looked at each other for a moment, and then they launched into a full-fledged fencing match.