[1016] I really ought to be in bed
But I'm not. Why am I not in bed? Because it's 1:10 a.m. and that means I have more zombie fic for you. I reject your reality and substitute my own!
Original drabble by askerian
Act IAct II
Scene I, Sasuke
Scene I, Naruto
Scene II, Shikamaru
Scene II, Sasuke
Scene III, Neji
Scene III, Tenten
Scene IV, Tenten
Scene IV, Sakura
Scene V, Lee
Behind the cut you'll find 1,900ish words from Neji's POV. This is him sneakily filling in some plotful things. Oh, and some action and stuff.
If you are having fun, let me know. Now, please excuse me while I go pass out.
Neji had to jump the curb in order to avoid a downed power line, and the wheels of his car tore up the beautifully manicured lawn and went straight through a pristine flowerbed full of yellow-and-white daffodils.
In the passenger seat, Katsuo let out an almost hysterical laugh. “Mrs. Yamada is going to throw a fit. The last time anyone--”
The final passenger in his second-to-last run was a nervous talker, something that had been mildly annoying during tight games but was absolutely maddening now. While Neji would never wish Katsuo to go the way of three-quarters of their schools baseball players, he would be lying if he didn’t acknowledge there were several other people he would much rather have at his side during this nightmare.
But Neji had been the only survivor of the horrific run from the bus to their high school that had managed to bring his car keys with him. When they’d finally had the chance to regroup and think, Shikamaru had offered the only solution that didn’t result in the boys turning on each other in the terror: Neji would drive them, in batches, as close to their homes as he could take them.
From that point on, it was up to them to find their families or friends or do whatever it was they thought they needed to do to survive. For the scorekeeper girl--Sakura--that hadn’t been enough, and she had run off on her own while he was taking his first group. And after her went Sasuke and Naruto, who had proven himself surprisingly level-headed and dependable for once.
Katsuo was his last passenger on his penultimate run. After this, only Lee, Shikamaru, and Raidon were left, and from there Neji would be free to drive himself home.
Or run there, if his perilously low gas tank had anything to say about it. He only hoped he would be able to get the last three to the outskirts of Fairfield and start on the way back before the tank ran dry. His wallet and the debit card inside it had been left behind on the bus, which meant his grand plan to fill up after the game put him in danger of not being able to get there at all.
He would deal with that when he had to. “Which house is yours?”
It was a street Neji had driven down many times before, though he had only ever entered one of them. Tenten and her family lived in the tiny green house with the young Douglas-fir outside it. He glanced quickly at it, but the house was dark, and he was grateful for it. Tenten was out of the state this weekend for an annual family reunion.
At least she would be safe.
Neji pulled in front of the light blue house two doors down. Before he could even shift from drive and into park, Katsuo was already prying open the passenger door.
“Hey, Katsuo!” But his teammate ignored him, practically tripping over himself in his haste to reach his home. Neji cursed under his breath and shoved his own door open, snatching up his well-used baseball bat from where it had been jammed between the front seats.
Katsuo ran for his home, Neji trailing a handful of steps behind. But before the overeager boy could put his foot on the first porch step, the door burst open and out stepped a young woman with a crowbar.
Yelping, Katsuo reared back and tripped, sending him sprawling onto the walkway. Neji had to do some quick footwork in order not to fall on top of his teammate and still managed to step on a hand anyway. The boy hissed in pain, but Neji’s attention was elsewhere.
Standing between them and the house was Tenten.
Katsuo’s family tried to convince Tenten to stay with them, but she refused. Not that Neji had been able to overhear any of the conversation--he’d gone back to the car to shut off the engine and save its fuel. He waited for her to emerge from the house, wondering how on earth she was still in town, now, of all times.
He flicked the radio back on, now that he was rid of his edgy passenger. A quick scan through the stations made it clear that none of the local radio stations were working again. When he had first started shuttling boys around the countryside, many stations were absolutely silent, the persons in charge of keeping noise on the air fled. Some looped the same songs over and over.
One particular station only featured the wet crunch of methodical chewing.
There was nothing new, and he quietly reburied a little piece of hope and reduced the volume to background noise.
After a few minutes Tenten came out with her crowbar dangling from one hand and her jacket pockets bulging. She flashed him a smile as she got inside and buckled up, her weapon placed upright between her legs. Neji started the engine and pulled away from the house.
Tenten grinned when the car jumped the curb and mangled the flowerbeds some more.
Once they were back on the road proper, he couldn’t hold back his questions any longer. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be about eight hundred miles away by now?”
“It wasn’t my idea.” She reached into a pocket and pulled out a bottle of painkillers to wave in his direction. “I started getting a migraine during practice yesterday. My parents decided they didn’t think it was a good idea to be stuck in a car with me for a fifteen hour drive when I--”
There was a sudden harsh blaring through the radio speakers. It took him by surprise, and he jerked, his car nearly sideswiping an empty vehicle on the side of the road before he could get back under control.
Tenten, heedless of his erratic driving, dropped her painkillers on the floor and lunged for the radio, cranking up the volume.
“--is being broadcasted at the request of the Department of Homeland Security. A local area emergency has been declared in the following counties--”
The mechanical male voice sent a knot of dread straight to his stomach. The list of affected counties seemed to go on forever. Their county was named, along with all the ones immediately surrounding it. They would have to go at least fifty miles in any direction to get out of the disaster area. And that was only if those monsters didn’t spread.
“All residents are advised to seek immediate shelter. Lock all doors and windows and remain where you are until you receive further notification through the Emergency Alert System, local authorities, or the National Guard. Do not use your telephone. Telephone lines must be kept open for emergency use.”
A lot of good that last one had done them. No one on the team had been able to get a call to go through. Not their families, not the police, no one. Three hours of a sickening hell for them, and who knew how long it had been going on before?
Neji allowed himself a moment to breathe deeply, fighting down the rising waves of fear and anger and despair. He would make it through this. There were people waiting on him, needing him to get them to whatever safety they could find.
“The following message is being broadcasted at the request of the Department of Homeland Security...”
Tenten turned down the volume again, the voice muted to a dull drone. She seemed suddenly paler than before, but before he could figure out what he could say, she gave him a tight smile that showed far too many teeth. “How fast can you get to school?”
Not fast enough.
By the time they got there, over a dozen of the creatures had surrounded the ownerless SUV. There was a small space at the center of the roof that was too far out of reach for all the grasping hands, and Shikamaru was occupying it in an extremely awkward looking crouch. He was obviously injured, one hand pressed to the roof to keep his balance, the other hand waving his bat around to fend off the creatures.
Lee danced around the younger boy, whipping his bat into any hands that strayed too close. But keeping a safe distance meant that he hadn’t yet been able to finish any of them off--there weren’t any bodies directly around the vehicle--and what did shattered limbs mean to those inhuman things?
There was no one else on the roof. If there was a later, he would feel guilty about the freshman.
Tenten spoke over the endlessly looping emergency alert. “We have to save them.”
“How?” Neji’s hands tightened on the steering wheel, knuckles white and bloodless.
Tenten worried her lower lip between her teeth and said nothing.
Neji’s thoughts churned. Shikamaru had theorized that the things were attracted to sound. But even if he started revving his engine and honking, there was no guarantee that they would abandon the prey just inches out of reach for something else and every chance even more of them would head in this direction. And even if they did come after the horn, what advantage did that gain the trapped boys if their only escape was surrounded?
Could Shikamaru even run in the state he was in? And while the calculating part of him knew it would be best to leave him behind, Neji knew Lee would never agree to it. Even if Shikamaru accepted the reasoning.
“You’ve got to take them out.”
Neji looked sharply at Tenten. She’d wrapped one hand around the crowbar and with the other she pointed at the besieged SUV. “See how they’re clustered?”
It was true. There were more of the creatures on one side of vehicle than the other two they could see. Neji felt a sudden flash of hope as he realized what Tenten was getting at. “We don’t know how many are on the fourth side.”
“Can’t be that many if Lee is letting the injured person take care of it.”
Also true. “Are you ready?”
Tenten slipped out of her jacket and tossed it in the back seat. “I’ll take the rear.” She unbuckled herself and got out of the car, swinging her crowbar so she could tuck one end under her arm. Then she threw him a smile fueled by equal parts fear and hope. “Shoot straight,” she said, and started running in a wide curve toward the SUV.
By that point Lee and Shikamaru had both seen them, so when Tenten yelled for them to get down, they got down. Lee practically shoved the injured boy into the roof, shielding him with his own body.
Neji stomped on the gas pedal, and his car shot forward like a stone from a sling. He kept his eyes focused squarely on the closest creature. In the instant before his side mirror shattered on the nose of the SUV, he made impact, and the thing somersaulted up into his windshield.
His vision exploded in white as the airbags deployed. He lost his grip on the steering wheel, slamming on his breaks in an attempt to keep some measure of control. There was a sound of tortured metal as his car tried to and largely failed to stop its forward momentum.
Luckily for the car, there was a second impact, one that brought it and Neji’s world to a complete stop.
Now with Tenten piece.
Original drabble by askerian
Act IAct II
Scene I, Sasuke
Scene I, Naruto
Scene II, Shikamaru
Scene II, Sasuke
Scene III, Neji
Scene III, Tenten
Scene IV, Tenten
Scene IV, Sakura
Scene V, Lee
Behind the cut you'll find 1,900ish words from Neji's POV. This is him sneakily filling in some plotful things. Oh, and some action and stuff.
If you are having fun, let me know. Now, please excuse me while I go pass out.
Neji had to jump the curb in order to avoid a downed power line, and the wheels of his car tore up the beautifully manicured lawn and went straight through a pristine flowerbed full of yellow-and-white daffodils.
In the passenger seat, Katsuo let out an almost hysterical laugh. “Mrs. Yamada is going to throw a fit. The last time anyone--”
The final passenger in his second-to-last run was a nervous talker, something that had been mildly annoying during tight games but was absolutely maddening now. While Neji would never wish Katsuo to go the way of three-quarters of their schools baseball players, he would be lying if he didn’t acknowledge there were several other people he would much rather have at his side during this nightmare.
But Neji had been the only survivor of the horrific run from the bus to their high school that had managed to bring his car keys with him. When they’d finally had the chance to regroup and think, Shikamaru had offered the only solution that didn’t result in the boys turning on each other in the terror: Neji would drive them, in batches, as close to their homes as he could take them.
From that point on, it was up to them to find their families or friends or do whatever it was they thought they needed to do to survive. For the scorekeeper girl--Sakura--that hadn’t been enough, and she had run off on her own while he was taking his first group. And after her went Sasuke and Naruto, who had proven himself surprisingly level-headed and dependable for once.
Katsuo was his last passenger on his penultimate run. After this, only Lee, Shikamaru, and Raidon were left, and from there Neji would be free to drive himself home.
Or run there, if his perilously low gas tank had anything to say about it. He only hoped he would be able to get the last three to the outskirts of Fairfield and start on the way back before the tank ran dry. His wallet and the debit card inside it had been left behind on the bus, which meant his grand plan to fill up after the game put him in danger of not being able to get there at all.
He would deal with that when he had to. “Which house is yours?”
It was a street Neji had driven down many times before, though he had only ever entered one of them. Tenten and her family lived in the tiny green house with the young Douglas-fir outside it. He glanced quickly at it, but the house was dark, and he was grateful for it. Tenten was out of the state this weekend for an annual family reunion.
At least she would be safe.
Neji pulled in front of the light blue house two doors down. Before he could even shift from drive and into park, Katsuo was already prying open the passenger door.
“Hey, Katsuo!” But his teammate ignored him, practically tripping over himself in his haste to reach his home. Neji cursed under his breath and shoved his own door open, snatching up his well-used baseball bat from where it had been jammed between the front seats.
Katsuo ran for his home, Neji trailing a handful of steps behind. But before the overeager boy could put his foot on the first porch step, the door burst open and out stepped a young woman with a crowbar.
Yelping, Katsuo reared back and tripped, sending him sprawling onto the walkway. Neji had to do some quick footwork in order not to fall on top of his teammate and still managed to step on a hand anyway. The boy hissed in pain, but Neji’s attention was elsewhere.
Standing between them and the house was Tenten.
Katsuo’s family tried to convince Tenten to stay with them, but she refused. Not that Neji had been able to overhear any of the conversation--he’d gone back to the car to shut off the engine and save its fuel. He waited for her to emerge from the house, wondering how on earth she was still in town, now, of all times.
He flicked the radio back on, now that he was rid of his edgy passenger. A quick scan through the stations made it clear that none of the local radio stations were working again. When he had first started shuttling boys around the countryside, many stations were absolutely silent, the persons in charge of keeping noise on the air fled. Some looped the same songs over and over.
One particular station only featured the wet crunch of methodical chewing.
There was nothing new, and he quietly reburied a little piece of hope and reduced the volume to background noise.
After a few minutes Tenten came out with her crowbar dangling from one hand and her jacket pockets bulging. She flashed him a smile as she got inside and buckled up, her weapon placed upright between her legs. Neji started the engine and pulled away from the house.
Tenten grinned when the car jumped the curb and mangled the flowerbeds some more.
Once they were back on the road proper, he couldn’t hold back his questions any longer. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be about eight hundred miles away by now?”
“It wasn’t my idea.” She reached into a pocket and pulled out a bottle of painkillers to wave in his direction. “I started getting a migraine during practice yesterday. My parents decided they didn’t think it was a good idea to be stuck in a car with me for a fifteen hour drive when I--”
There was a sudden harsh blaring through the radio speakers. It took him by surprise, and he jerked, his car nearly sideswiping an empty vehicle on the side of the road before he could get back under control.
Tenten, heedless of his erratic driving, dropped her painkillers on the floor and lunged for the radio, cranking up the volume.
“--is being broadcasted at the request of the Department of Homeland Security. A local area emergency has been declared in the following counties--”
The mechanical male voice sent a knot of dread straight to his stomach. The list of affected counties seemed to go on forever. Their county was named, along with all the ones immediately surrounding it. They would have to go at least fifty miles in any direction to get out of the disaster area. And that was only if those monsters didn’t spread.
“All residents are advised to seek immediate shelter. Lock all doors and windows and remain where you are until you receive further notification through the Emergency Alert System, local authorities, or the National Guard. Do not use your telephone. Telephone lines must be kept open for emergency use.”
A lot of good that last one had done them. No one on the team had been able to get a call to go through. Not their families, not the police, no one. Three hours of a sickening hell for them, and who knew how long it had been going on before?
Neji allowed himself a moment to breathe deeply, fighting down the rising waves of fear and anger and despair. He would make it through this. There were people waiting on him, needing him to get them to whatever safety they could find.
“The following message is being broadcasted at the request of the Department of Homeland Security...”
Tenten turned down the volume again, the voice muted to a dull drone. She seemed suddenly paler than before, but before he could figure out what he could say, she gave him a tight smile that showed far too many teeth. “How fast can you get to school?”
Not fast enough.
By the time they got there, over a dozen of the creatures had surrounded the ownerless SUV. There was a small space at the center of the roof that was too far out of reach for all the grasping hands, and Shikamaru was occupying it in an extremely awkward looking crouch. He was obviously injured, one hand pressed to the roof to keep his balance, the other hand waving his bat around to fend off the creatures.
Lee danced around the younger boy, whipping his bat into any hands that strayed too close. But keeping a safe distance meant that he hadn’t yet been able to finish any of them off--there weren’t any bodies directly around the vehicle--and what did shattered limbs mean to those inhuman things?
There was no one else on the roof. If there was a later, he would feel guilty about the freshman.
Tenten spoke over the endlessly looping emergency alert. “We have to save them.”
“How?” Neji’s hands tightened on the steering wheel, knuckles white and bloodless.
Tenten worried her lower lip between her teeth and said nothing.
Neji’s thoughts churned. Shikamaru had theorized that the things were attracted to sound. But even if he started revving his engine and honking, there was no guarantee that they would abandon the prey just inches out of reach for something else and every chance even more of them would head in this direction. And even if they did come after the horn, what advantage did that gain the trapped boys if their only escape was surrounded?
Could Shikamaru even run in the state he was in? And while the calculating part of him knew it would be best to leave him behind, Neji knew Lee would never agree to it. Even if Shikamaru accepted the reasoning.
“You’ve got to take them out.”
Neji looked sharply at Tenten. She’d wrapped one hand around the crowbar and with the other she pointed at the besieged SUV. “See how they’re clustered?”
It was true. There were more of the creatures on one side of vehicle than the other two they could see. Neji felt a sudden flash of hope as he realized what Tenten was getting at. “We don’t know how many are on the fourth side.”
“Can’t be that many if Lee is letting the injured person take care of it.”
Also true. “Are you ready?”
Tenten slipped out of her jacket and tossed it in the back seat. “I’ll take the rear.” She unbuckled herself and got out of the car, swinging her crowbar so she could tuck one end under her arm. Then she threw him a smile fueled by equal parts fear and hope. “Shoot straight,” she said, and started running in a wide curve toward the SUV.
By that point Lee and Shikamaru had both seen them, so when Tenten yelled for them to get down, they got down. Lee practically shoved the injured boy into the roof, shielding him with his own body.
Neji stomped on the gas pedal, and his car shot forward like a stone from a sling. He kept his eyes focused squarely on the closest creature. In the instant before his side mirror shattered on the nose of the SUV, he made impact, and the thing somersaulted up into his windshield.
His vision exploded in white as the airbags deployed. He lost his grip on the steering wheel, slamming on his breaks in an attempt to keep some measure of control. There was a sound of tortured metal as his car tried to and largely failed to stop its forward momentum.
Luckily for the car, there was a second impact, one that brought it and Neji’s world to a complete stop.
Now with Tenten piece.