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Chapter 2: The Outbreak

“You mean to tell me that, that fucking thing outside is a walking corpse?” Zim asked Gaz disbelievingly. The two were no longer in the kitchen, having moved to the hallway, as there were no windows looking into it. Gaz was rooting through the closet for a weapon of some sort. “That’s exactly what I’m telling you.” Gaz told her alien boyfriend. Zim rubbed his eyes trying to process the information he received. He’d tangled with zombies before, but not like this. Slab Rankle’s zombies were poorly made, slow, and stupid to the point of being harmless. That thing outside though, was fast, deadly, and much more intelligent than Slab’s zombie minions.

Gaz finally found what she was looking for when she found an old aluminum baseball bat Dib had received for his sixth birthday. She pulled it out along with a five iron from her dad’s golf bag. “Take this,” she said, handing Zim the golf club. She walked to the kitchen door to which was still being banged on by the old woman zombie. Gaz turned to Zim. “I want you to open the door and let that thing in. When it comes after me, I’ll hit with this,” she said, raising the bat to emphasize her point even more. “Okay.” Zim said going over to the door. “On the count of three.” Gaz said. “One…two…three!”

Zim threw the door open and as expected, the zombie ran in at Gaz. The thing was quick but Gaz was quicker, swinging the bat at max power and getting the zombie in the chest, knocking it off its feet. She quickly stepped down on the things chest to keep it from getting back up. It snapped and growled at her but she kept it down. She raised her bat over her head, aligning it with the zombie’s. CRACK! First swing connected with the things head in a gut-wrenching crunch. She kept this up, beating the thing constantly as blood, skull, teeth, and brain matter flew everywhere.

When she finally stopped, the zombie’s head resembled a Rorschach inkblot test. She had blood and brain matter on her shirt, which she paid no mind to. She was panting heavily after such a large adrenaline rush. She didn’t feel any remorse or sorrow for what she did. She knew it had to be done and that the woman was dead to begin with, so any form of pity or sadness would be irrelevant. “We have to go,” Gaz said as she slung the bat over her shoulder. “What?” Zim asked looking up from the brutalized corpse. “Something tells me that there’s something big going down,” she said.

She grabbed her car keys and ran upstairs, returning almost immediately with her cell phone. “C’mon Zim,” she said as they made their way to the front door. “If we’re lucky, then this will only be an isolated incident.” Zim looked at her with a look of worry on his face. “And if it’s not?” he asked. Gaz closed her eyes as she grabbed the doorknob. “Then God help us all,” she said. She twisted the knob and threw open the door. Nothing could’ve prepared the two for what was outside the house. Screams of terror and the distant wail of sirens filled their ears as they beheld a scene that could be best described as apocalyptic.

People were chasing down other people, tackling them to the ground and besieging them as the poor slobs screamed for help. An ambulance drove by, only to rock violently before swerving off the road into a nearby house. “Get to the car, now!” Gaz said as she and Zim ran toward her car, jumping in and throwing the doors shut and locking them. Gaz put the keys in the ignition and started up the car. She gunned it, driving the car out of the neighborhood as fast as she possibly could.

On the way out, Gaz and Zim saw more carnage and brutality happen around them. Gaz turned on the radio to see if there was anything about what was happening. “…brutality the likes I’ve never seen. I’ve seen it in movies and video games, but never in real life.” A DJ of a local area radio station was reporting on what was going on with a fevered tone of voice like one who had come face to face with the apocalypse. “Ladies and gentlemen this is an event the likes of which the world has never seen before. I’ve just received reports that police are urging people to stay in their homes or if possible go to a designated safe zone.”

“What possible safe zones could there be?” Zim asked as a semi collided with a sedan, causing an explosion to their right. “The list of currently available safe zones is as follows,” the man on the radio, said. “The city school, the asylum, the prison, and the Membrane Labs.” Gaz gripped the wheel a little tighter; she hoped to God that her father and Dib were safe. Zim seemed to pick up on this and put his hand on her shoulder. “I’m sure they’re okay,” he told her reassuringly. She smiled faintly to him and kept driving. “Where do you think we should go?” Gaz asked Zim. “The Skool, it’s the closest safe zone around here,” was his reply. Gaz decided that was probably a good idea and turned towards the Skool.

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Earlier that morning: 7:20 AM

Dib woke up with his head resting on his arms. He had been up late working with Craig on an experiment of theirs before he fell asleep. He wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth as he got up. As he walked out of Craig’s room, he yawned and scratched his stomach. He walked to Craig’s bathroom, as he seriously needed to take a piss. In all honesty, he didn’t really like Craig. He was annoying, stuck up, tight assed, and an insensitive prick. However, he was the only person with any credibility in science that believed in aliens like Dib did at his school. He also became friends with him because he felt sorry no one would hang out him. After a few months, he could see why.

As Dib left Craig’s bathroom after finally relieving himself, he noticed something strange as he exited the door. He looked down the stairs to see the front door was wide open. This was especially strange, as Dib knew Craig was not someone who would be so careless as to leave the front door open. Going down the stairs slowly, Dib called out to see if anyone was around. “Craig, are you down here? Why is your front door open?” he called out. As he made it to the ground floor, he closed the front door gently and turned around. “Craig? You here?”

Dib then heard a noise from Craig’s kitchen. He turned toward it moving down the hall slowly. He walked slowly making sure not to make too much noise. When he got to the kitchen, he looked in. “Craig is that you?” he asked again. Though he realized now that it wasn’t Craig. It was his mother, though Craig was there. Or rather his body was. On the kitchen table laid the unmoving corpse of Craig, his intestines pulled out and his mother feeding on them. “Oh shit.” Dib muttered. This caused Craig’s mother to snap her head up from her feeding. She turned toward the bespectacled teen with her mouth caked in blood. Besides the blood, she looked normal as any human. But that’s when Dib noticed the thumb on her left hand was missing, leaving a still bloody wound which looked like it had been bitten off.

What happened next made Dib almost shit himself. She roared or snarled or shouted at him. He wasn’t sure, but he did know he needed to run when she bolted after him. He turned and ran back down the hall and up the stairs back to Craig’s room as he heard his now deceased “friend’s” mom chase after him. He made it in before she caught up and he slammed the door shut locking the deadbolt, chain, and doorknob locks Craig had on his door. He then shoved Craig’s dresser in front of the door as banging began to commence on the door. He turned back around and grabbed his laptop and shoved it in its bag. He then opened the window of the bedroom and looked down.

He wasn’t too far from the ground, but he didn’t want to risk breaking, dislocating, or spraining any part of his legs. He turned back to the bed and removed the mattress. He then forced it out the window where it landed on the ground right under the window. He then grabbed the two beanbag chairs Craig had and tossed them out onto the mattress. He then climbed out of the window as he began to hear the wooden door break behind him. He then leapt down onto his improvised landing pad landing much softer than he would have without it. He got to his feet and ran back to the front of the house where his car was. When he got to it, he jumped in immediately and slammed the door shut.

As he started it though, he noticed out of the corner of his eye the front door of the house open. When it did, out walked none other than Craig. His intestines were still hanging out, and a few of his other organs were showing. He noticed Dib and let out the same snarl/roar/shriek his mother did and ran at an abnormally fast speed for a human at his car. Dib had forgotten to start the car as he was now frozen with fear as Craig jumped on his car. This shook Dib to his senses and he started the car, peeling out with Craig on top. Craig held on though and began climbing onto Dib’s windshield. Dib immediately slammed on the brake’s throwing Craig from the roof onto the street in front of him. He then gunned it again, running over Craig violently. As he drove away though, he noticed the smashed corpse still moving behind him. “Oh shit, not again.” Dib said as he sped off from the neighborhood.

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Zim and Gaz had never before seen this many people crowded into the Skool’s auditorium before. There had to be more than a hundred people stuffed in it. “Jesus, it looks worse than I could’ve ever imagined.” Zim said scanning the auditorium. The military had already arrived and had put a large chain link fence around the area with snipers stationed on top of the building and infantry on the ground. Gaz was scanning the crowd, looking for her brother and father. She was distracted though by someone calling her name off to her right.

She turned towards the voice and saw her brother and father running towards her. She ran over and hugged them both, something she normally didn’t do, much less in public. But this was different and appearances be damned! She was just happy they were both safe. “Oh, thank goodness you’re safe Gaz.” Professor Membrane said to his daughter. He then noticed Zim standing there watching the touching reunion. “Ah, you must be Zim. I don’t think we’ve ever properly met each other,” he said going over the green teenager. “Oh, yeah I forgot.” Gaz said joining the two. “Dad this is my boyfriend Zim, Zim this is my dad.”

The two shook hands with Zim grinning kinda awkwardly at the Professor. “Nice to finally meet you Mr. Membrane” he said. “Oh please call me Robert.” The Professor told him. “Um, okay.” Zim didn’t know what to say now and was feeling kind of awkward in the position he was in. Luckily, a person came over and told Professor Membrane he was going to have to go on soon. “Ah yes, slipped my mind. Well it was nice meeting you Zim.” The Professor said as he left. “Likewise,” replied Zim. As soon as Prof. Membrane was far enough away though, Dib seemed to suddenly appear in Zim’s face.

“Listen here space boy,” he said threateningly to Zim. “Nothing’s changed between you and me no matter what goes on outside. And I’ve got my suspicions this was your doing.” Zim raised an eyebrow; or rather he would have if he had any, at his arch nemesis. “Well while I thank you for thinking that I, the mighty Zim, had done this I must sadly point out that you are wrong.” Zim told Dib. “See I myself had sought after the ability to make zombies, but alas I never could. Whoever did this is a genius of the highest caliber…or a fool of the highest caliber. Either way, I have nothing to do with this and am as baffled as you are as to how it happened.” Dib wanted to make a rebuttal, but he could tell that by Zim’s tone of voice and the look in his eyes that he was telling the truth.

Gaz had meanwhile stepped in between the two to keep a fight from breaking out. “Dib leave him alone, he obviously had nothing to do this.” Dib backed down from Zim and raised a finger to him. “Don’t think this is over space boy. Not by a long shot,” he said before storming off. “Jeez, what an asshole.” Zim said as he and Gaz walked off themselves.

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The whole group of people in the auditorium were now looking at the stage where Professor Membrane himself was standing. He was at a podium that the teachers usually used during class assemblies, and was about to make an announcement. “I’d like to say that I’m glad so many people here are safe and sound, my children included.” He was looking out into the crowd where he could see Gaz and Dib standing amongst the others. “As you are all well aware, zombies have begun attacking the city. Because of this, I’ve activated Code Black which has activated a security measure meant to keep those things from escaping into the rest of the world.” Professor Membrane then pulled up a screen behind him and pointed to a graph on it.

“Code Black activates a large one hundred foot high, fifty foot thick steel wall to go up around the city. This was created by the government to easily quarantine the city in case something like this happened.” People in the crowd were beginning to get upset. “You mean to tell us we’re trapped in here with those…things!” a man in the crowd shouted at The Professor. “Yes, but Code Black also alerts the military allowing them to get here in minutes to help control the situation.” Membrane said trying to calm the crowd. “But wait, doesn’t this mean this is your fault?” someone else in the audience asked. People were now getting angry at The Professor, and it was getting harder to calm them down.

‘I can’t see how this could get any worse.’ Professor Membrane thought as he looked out at the crowd. Just then though, the soldier standing guard next to The Professor got a call on his walkie-talkie. “Sir! Come in sir!” came the voice on the other end. “What is it soldier?” the officer asked. “The zombies sir! They’ve breached the barrier! There’s too many of them, and AAGH!” The line went dead, and almost immediately after, the doors to the auditorium burst open, and zombies poured in through the open door. People immediately began screaming and trying to run for safety. Some however, were not quick enough and were caught by the walking corpses and were messily devoured.

“Professor Membrane! We have to get you out of here!” the officer from earlier said as he and the other soldier grabbed him trying to pull him out. “Not without my kids!” he shouted at them. “No time, we have to go!” the officer said dragging the Professor out of the auditorium. Dib, Zim, and Gaz on the other hand were running for their lives into the main school building. Screams, snarls, and gunfire could be heard from all around them as they ran for someplace safe. As they ran down the hall, a voice called out to them. “Hey! In here!” They turned and saw a tall African-American police officer waving them over to a classroom. The three ran into the room and the cop slammed the door behind them, pushing the teachers desk in front of the door.

The three tried to catch their breath as they looked around the room. They were surprised at how many old classmates of theirs were in there. Brian, Zita, Chunk, The Letter M, Melvin, Torque, Sara, Poonchy, and Rob were all in the room. Besides them, there were several other people whom they did not recognize. Aside from the cop, there was also a soldier, a man in office clothes, a Krazy Taco employee, a woman still in her pajamas, and a middle-aged couple. “You guys okay?” the cop asked Gaz, Zim, and Dib. “Yeah, we’re fine.” Dib said to him. “Good,” was the cop’s response.

“What are we gonna do now?” the man in office clothes asked as he sat leaning against a window. They were luckily on the second floor, so nothing could come in through the window. “I think first we should introduce ourselves,” the cop said sitting at a chair. “My name’s Benjamin Frost.” He then gestured to the kids who each said their names, followed by everyone else. The man in the office clothes was named Chase Kingsley, the pajama-clad woman was named Hannah McClain, the Krazy Taco employee was named Carl Lynch, the soldier was named Brad Romero, and the couple were Hope and Richard Davis. “Alright, now that the formalities are out of the way. We should be thinking of a way to get out of here.” Ben said to the others.

Chase looked out the window and noticed a school bus parked directly underneath the window. “Does anyone here know how to hotwire a vehicle?” he asked. Everyone stared at him. “What are you talking about?” Ben asked him walking over to the window. “Down there, there’s a bus. If one of us could jump down to its roof and climb in through the emergency hatch on top, they could hotwire it and bring it to an exit so we can get to somewhere safe.” Ben stared at the vehicle. “It’s a long shot, but it sure beats waiting around here to get eaten doesn’t it?” The cop then turned to the group behind him, “Anyone here know how to hotwire a vehicle?” Zim stepped forward with his hand raised. “I do.” Ben looked at him with a look of curiosity. He had never in his life seen a kid with green skin before. He figured it was either a skin condition or full body paint. Either way, the kid said he knew how to hotwire a car, so hopefully he did.

“Alright kid, it’s up to you then.” Zim began to walk over, but was stopped by Gaz who turned him towards herself. “Be careful Zim. Don’t go getting yourself killed or I’ll have to bring you back just to do it again,” she told him. Zim smirked, “Don’t worry sweet stuff, I’ll be okay.” The two then kissed, which caused Dib to glare at Zim. After they finished Zim walked by Dib who was still glaring at him. Zim just smirked at him and went over to the window. “When you get it started, bring it around to the front entrance.” Ben told Zim. Zim just nodded in agreement. Pushing the window open he looked down at the bus roof. He noticed there some zombies roaming about but none of them were paying attention to the bus. Zim held his breath. ‘Well here goes nothin’,’ he thought to himself.

He jumped from the window toward the roof. He landed on top of it but not without making quite a bit of noise. The zombies wandering around, turned towards the bus, and seeing Zim on it, let out a snarl and rushed the thing. Zim got to his feet and ran over to the hatch, pulling it off the vehicle and tossing it aside. He jumped in as the creatures began surrounding the vehicle, pounding on it vigorously. Seeing Zim had made it in the vehicle, Ben turned towards the others. “Okay, I’m gonna open the door and lead us to the front entrance. Soldier boy,” he gestured toward Brad in the corner. “You take up the rear. Any of those things get near us, shoot ‘em.” “That won’t do any good sir,” was Brad’s reply. “Why not?” Ben asked back. “Those things are unstoppable. We’ve tried shooting them, but they keep coming.”

“You have to shoot them in the head.” Gaz said. “Haven’t any of you seen any of George A. Romero’s Dead films? They specifically state, that in order to bring down a zombie, one must either damage or destroy the brain of the living dead in order to destroy it.” “This isn’t a movie okay?” Chunk said to Gaz. “Just because you saw it in a movie doesn’t mean it’ll work.” Gaz turned toward Chunk and walked toward him. “I tried it on one of them just this morning with a baseball bat, when I was finished its head looked like a Jackson Pollock painting,” she stated simply. “It stopped moving so I think that’s a good indication it worked.” Everyone else in the room stared at Gaz in disbelief at how calm she stated what she had done. She ignored them, turning toward Ben and Brad. “So are we leaving now?” she asked the two. “Yeah, yeah, we’re leaving. Just watch out for any of those things.” Ben said.

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Zim was sweating bullets now; this was turning out to be even harder than he was expecting it to be. The zombies pounding on the bus weren’t helping things either. “God dammit, why is this so hard?” Zim asked as he continued working on the vehicle. He wiped some sweat from his brow and continued working. ‘I think this should be the last thing,’ he thought as he connected two wires together. The sound of the engine starting was a good indication that it worked. Zim got up off the floor and got behind the wheel. “All right, now let’s see what this baby can do,” he said as he put it in gear and drove it out of its parking spot. He hit several zombies, hearing their bodies’ crunch like so many dried twigs. “Stupid zombies, though this is fun.” Zim said to himself. He finally made it to the front and parked the thing. “Now to play the waiting game,” he said.

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Back in Skool, the group had made their way through most of the building without seeing a single zombie. “This is weird, shouldn’t there be more running around?” Carl asked as they made their way down the hallway slowly. “Not necessarily,” Dib said. “ Many may still be feeding or might have left in search for food elsewhere.” “Oh well that’s a pleasant image.” The Letter M, whose real name was Matthew, said. “Shh! Quiet!” Ben said from the front. He peeked around a corner down a different hallway. They were almost to the front door and he wanted to make sure nothing surprised them. He saw a small group of about four zombies feeding on a man in the middle of the hallway.

He turned back to the others. “Okay, there’s about four of those things down the hall,” he whispered. “If we’re quiet enough, we can probably slip by unnoticed and get out. Now follow me but go slowly.” Ben then beckoned everyone on, leading them slowly away from the zombies. Carl though chanced a glance over at the things and accidentally bumped into a janitor’s cart knocking some things off. This alerted the zombies and upon seeing the fresh meat let out their characteristic snarl. “RUN!” shouted Dib as the zombies began chasing them. The group began making a mad dash to the front door, more and more zombies coming after them. They all made it to the front door and burst out seeing Zim waiting for them. Zim saw them coming and threw the doors open. “Get in!” he shouted at everyone. As they piled in, the zombies were hot on their heels. Zim slammed the doors closed before they could get on with the others though and Zim immediately drove off. “Where do we go now?” Brian asked. “To the mall.” Gaz said. “It should be safe there.”

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Description
Chapter 2: The Outbreak

“You mean to tell me that, that fucking thing outside is a walking corpse?” Zim asked Gaz disbelievingly. The two were no longer in the kitchen, having moved to the hallway, as there were no windows looking into it. Gaz was rooting through the closet for a weapon of some sort. “That’s exactly what I’m telling you.” Gaz told her alien boyfriend. Zim rubbed his eyes trying to process the information he received. He’d tangled with zombies before, but not like this. Slab Rankle’s zombies were poorly made, slow, and stupid to the point of being harmless. That thing outside though, was fast, deadly, and much more intelligent than Slab’s zombie minions.

Gaz finally found what she was looking for when she found an old aluminum baseball bat Dib had received for his sixth birthday. She pulled it out along with a five iron from her dad’s golf bag. “Take this,” she said, handing Zim the golf club. She walked to the kitchen door to which was still being banged on by the old woman zombie. Gaz turned to Zim. “I want you to open the door and let that thing in. When it comes after me, I’ll hit with this,” she said, raising the bat to emphasize her point even more. “Okay.” Zim said going over to the door. “On the count of three.” Gaz said. “One…two…three!”

Zim threw the door open and as expected, the zombie ran in at Gaz. The thing was quick but Gaz was quicker, swinging the bat at max power and getting the zombie in the chest, knocking it off its feet. She quickly stepped down on the things chest to keep it from getting back up. It snapped and growled at her but she kept it down. She raised her bat over her head, aligning it with the zombie’s. CRACK! First swing connected with the things head in a gut-wrenching crunch. She kept this up, beating the thing constantly as blood, skull, teeth, and brain matter flew everywhere.

When she finally stopped, the zombie’s head resembled a Rorschach inkblot test. She had blood and brain matter on her shirt, which she paid no mind to. She was panting heavily after such a large adrenaline rush. She didn’t feel any remorse or sorrow for what she did. She knew it had to be done and that the woman was dead to begin with, so any form of pity or sadness would be irrelevant. “We have to go,” Gaz said as she slung the bat over her shoulder. “What?” Zim asked looking up from the brutalized corpse. “Something tells me that there’s something big going down,” she said.

She grabbed her car keys and ran upstairs, returning almost immediately with her cell phone. “C’mon Zim,” she said as they made their way to the front door. “If we’re lucky, then this will only be an isolated incident.” Zim looked at her with a look of worry on his face. “And if it’s not?” he asked. Gaz closed her eyes as she grabbed the doorknob. “Then God help us all,” she said. She twisted the knob and threw open the door. Nothing could’ve prepared the two for what was outside the house. Screams of terror and the distant wail of sirens filled their ears as they beheld a scene that could be best described as apocalyptic.

People were chasing down other people, tackling them to the ground and besieging them as the poor slobs screamed for help. An ambulance drove by, only to rock violently before swerving off the road into a nearby house. “Get to the car, now!” Gaz said as she and Zim ran toward her car, jumping in and throwing the doors shut and locking them. Gaz put the keys in the ignition and started up the car. She gunned it, driving the car out of the neighborhood as fast as she possibly could.

On the way out, Gaz and Zim saw more carnage and brutality happen around them. Gaz turned on the radio to see if there was anything about what was happening. “…brutality the likes I’ve never seen. I’ve seen it in movies and video games, but never in real life.” A DJ of a local area radio station was reporting on what was going on with a fevered tone of voice like one who had come face to face with the apocalypse. “Ladies and gentlemen this is an event the likes of which the world has never seen before. I’ve just received reports that police are urging people to stay in their homes or if possible go to a designated safe zone.”

“What possible safe zones could there be?” Zim asked as a semi collided with a sedan, causing an explosion to their right. “The list of currently available safe zones is as follows,” the man on the radio, said. “The city school, the asylum, the prison, and the Membrane Labs.” Gaz gripped the wheel a little tighter; she hoped to God that her father and Dib were safe. Zim seemed to pick up on this and put his hand on her shoulder. “I’m sure they’re okay,” he told her reassuringly. She smiled faintly to him and kept driving. “Where do you think we should go?” Gaz asked Zim. “The Skool, it’s the closest safe zone around here,” was his reply. Gaz decided that was probably a good idea and turned towards the Skool.

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Earlier that morning: 7:20 AM

Dib woke up with his head resting on his arms. He had been up late working with Craig on an experiment of theirs before he fell asleep. He wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth as he got up. As he walked out of Craig’s room, he yawned and scratched his stomach. He walked to Craig’s bathroom, as he seriously needed to take a piss. In all honesty, he didn’t really like Craig. He was annoying, stuck up, tight assed, and an insensitive prick. However, he was the only person with any credibility in science that believed in aliens like Dib did at his school. He also became friends with him because he felt sorry no one would hang out him. After a few months, he could see why.

As Dib left Craig’s bathroom after finally relieving himself, he noticed something strange as he exited the door. He looked down the stairs to see the front door was wide open. This was especially strange, as Dib knew Craig was not someone who would be so careless as to leave the front door open. Going down the stairs slowly, Dib called out to see if anyone was around. “Craig, are you down here? Why is your front door open?” he called out. As he made it to the ground floor, he closed the front door gently and turned around. “Craig? You here?”

Dib then heard a noise from Craig’s kitchen. He turned toward it moving down the hall slowly. He walked slowly making sure not to make too much noise. When he got to the kitchen, he looked in. “Craig is that you?” he asked again. Though he realized now that it wasn’t Craig. It was his mother, though Craig was there. Or rather his body was. On the kitchen table laid the unmoving corpse of Craig, his intestines pulled out and his mother feeding on them. “Oh shit.” Dib muttered. This caused Craig’s mother to snap her head up from her feeding. She turned toward the bespectacled teen with her mouth caked in blood. Besides the blood, she looked normal as any human. But that’s when Dib noticed the thumb on her left hand was missing, leaving a still bloody wound which looked like it had been bitten off.

What happened next made Dib almost shit himself. She roared or snarled or shouted at him. He wasn’t sure, but he did know he needed to run when she bolted after him. He turned and ran back down the hall and up the stairs back to Craig’s room as he heard his now deceased “friend’s” mom chase after him. He made it in before she caught up and he slammed the door shut locking the deadbolt, chain, and doorknob locks Craig had on his door. He then shoved Craig’s dresser in front of the door as banging began to commence on the door. He turned back around and grabbed his laptop and shoved it in its bag. He then opened the window of the bedroom and looked down.

He wasn’t too far from the ground, but he didn’t want to risk breaking, dislocating, or spraining any part of his legs. He turned back to the bed and removed the mattress. He then forced it out the window where it landed on the ground right under the window. He then grabbed the two beanbag chairs Craig had and tossed them out onto the mattress. He then climbed out of the window as he began to hear the wooden door break behind him. He then leapt down onto his improvised landing pad landing much softer than he would have without it. He got to his feet and ran back to the front of the house where his car was. When he got to it, he jumped in immediately and slammed the door shut.

As he started it though, he noticed out of the corner of his eye the front door of the house open. When it did, out walked none other than Craig. His intestines were still hanging out, and a few of his other organs were showing. He noticed Dib and let out the same snarl/roar/shriek his mother did and ran at an abnormally fast speed for a human at his car. Dib had forgotten to start the car as he was now frozen with fear as Craig jumped on his car. This shook Dib to his senses and he started the car, peeling out with Craig on top. Craig held on though and began climbing onto Dib’s windshield. Dib immediately slammed on the brake’s throwing Craig from the roof onto the street in front of him. He then gunned it again, running over Craig violently. As he drove away though, he noticed the smashed corpse still moving behind him. “Oh shit, not again.” Dib said as he sped off from the neighborhood.

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Zim and Gaz had never before seen this many people crowded into the Skool’s auditorium before. There had to be more than a hundred people stuffed in it. “Jesus, it looks worse than I could’ve ever imagined.” Zim said scanning the auditorium. The military had already arrived and had put a large chain link fence around the area with snipers stationed on top of the building and infantry on the ground. Gaz was scanning the crowd, looking for her brother and father. She was distracted though by someone calling her name off to her right.

She turned towards the voice and saw her brother and father running towards her. She ran over and hugged them both, something she normally didn’t do, much less in public. But this was different and appearances be damned! She was just happy they were both safe. “Oh, thank goodness you’re safe Gaz.” Professor Membrane said to his daughter. He then noticed Zim standing there watching the touching reunion. “Ah, you must be Zim. I don’t think we’ve ever properly met each other,” he said going over the green teenager. “Oh, yeah I forgot.” Gaz said joining the two. “Dad this is my boyfriend Zim, Zim this is my dad.”

The two shook hands with Zim grinning kinda awkwardly at the Professor. “Nice to finally meet you Mr. Membrane” he said. “Oh please call me Robert.” The Professor told him. “Um, okay.” Zim didn’t know what to say now and was feeling kind of awkward in the position he was in. Luckily, a person came over and told Professor Membrane he was going to have to go on soon. “Ah yes, slipped my mind. Well it was nice meeting you Zim.” The Professor said as he left. “Likewise,” replied Zim. As soon as Prof. Membrane was far enough away though, Dib seemed to suddenly appear in Zim’s face.

“Listen here space boy,” he said threateningly to Zim. “Nothing’s changed between you and me no matter what goes on outside. And I’ve got my suspicions this was your doing.” Zim raised an eyebrow; or rather he would have if he had any, at his arch nemesis. “Well while I thank you for thinking that I, the mighty Zim, had done this I must sadly point out that you are wrong.” Zim told Dib. “See I myself had sought after the ability to make zombies, but alas I never could. Whoever did this is a genius of the highest caliber…or a fool of the highest caliber. Either way, I have nothing to do with this and am as baffled as you are as to how it happened.” Dib wanted to make a rebuttal, but he could tell that by Zim’s tone of voice and the look in his eyes that he was telling the truth.

Gaz had meanwhile stepped in between the two to keep a fight from breaking out. “Dib leave him alone, he obviously had nothing to do this.” Dib backed down from Zim and raised a finger to him. “Don’t think this is over space boy. Not by a long shot,” he said before storming off. “Jeez, what an asshole.” Zim said as he and Gaz walked off themselves.

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The whole group of people in the auditorium were now looking at the stage where Professor Membrane himself was standing. He was at a podium that the teachers usually used during class assemblies, and was about to make an announcement. “I’d like to say that I’m glad so many people here are safe and sound, my children included.” He was looking out into the crowd where he could see Gaz and Dib standing amongst the others. “As you are all well aware, zombies have begun attacking the city. Because of this, I’ve activated Code Black which has activated a security measure meant to keep those things from escaping into the rest of the world.” Professor Membrane then pulled up a screen behind him and pointed to a graph on it.

“Code Black activates a large one hundred foot high, fifty foot thick steel wall to go up around the city. This was created by the government to easily quarantine the city in case something like this happened.” People in the crowd were beginning to get upset. “You mean to tell us we’re trapped in here with those…things!” a man in the crowd shouted at The Professor. “Yes, but Code Black also alerts the military allowing them to get here in minutes to help control the situation.” Membrane said trying to calm the crowd. “But wait, doesn’t this mean this is your fault?” someone else in the audience asked. People were now getting angry at The Professor, and it was getting harder to calm them down.

‘I can’t see how this could get any worse.’ Professor Membrane thought as he looked out at the crowd. Just then though, the soldier standing guard next to The Professor got a call on his walkie-talkie. “Sir! Come in sir!” came the voice on the other end. “What is it soldier?” the officer asked. “The zombies sir! They’ve breached the barrier! There’s too many of them, and AAGH!” The line went dead, and almost immediately after, the doors to the auditorium burst open, and zombies poured in through the open door. People immediately began screaming and trying to run for safety. Some however, were not quick enough and were caught by the walking corpses and were messily devoured.

“Professor Membrane! We have to get you out of here!” the officer from earlier said as he and the other soldier grabbed him trying to pull him out. “Not without my kids!” he shouted at them. “No time, we have to go!” the officer said dragging the Professor out of the auditorium. Dib, Zim, and Gaz on the other hand were running for their lives into the main school building. Screams, snarls, and gunfire could be heard from all around them as they ran for someplace safe. As they ran down the hall, a voice called out to them. “Hey! In here!” They turned and saw a tall African-American police officer waving them over to a classroom. The three ran into the room and the cop slammed the door behind them, pushing the teachers desk in front of the door.

The three tried to catch their breath as they looked around the room. They were surprised at how many old classmates of theirs were in there. Brian, Zita, Chunk, The Letter M, Melvin, Torque, Sara, Poonchy, and Rob were all in the room. Besides them, there were several other people whom they did not recognize. Aside from the cop, there was also a soldier, a man in office clothes, a Krazy Taco employee, a woman still in her pajamas, and a middle-aged couple. “You guys okay?” the cop asked Gaz, Zim, and Dib. “Yeah, we’re fine.” Dib said to him. “Good,” was the cop’s response.

“What are we gonna do now?” the man in office clothes asked as he sat leaning against a window. They were luckily on the second floor, so nothing could come in through the window. “I think first we should introduce ourselves,” the cop said sitting at a chair. “My name’s Benjamin Frost.” He then gestured to the kids who each said their names, followed by everyone else. The man in the office clothes was named Chase Kingsley, the pajama-clad woman was named Hannah McClain, the Krazy Taco employee was named Carl Lynch, the soldier was named Brad Romero, and the couple were Hope and Richard Davis. “Alright, now that the formalities are out of the way. We should be thinking of a way to get out of here.” Ben said to the others.

Chase looked out the window and noticed a school bus parked directly underneath the window. “Does anyone here know how to hotwire a vehicle?” he asked. Everyone stared at him. “What are you talking about?” Ben asked him walking over to the window. “Down there, there’s a bus. If one of us could jump down to its roof and climb in through the emergency hatch on top, they could hotwire it and bring it to an exit so we can get to somewhere safe.” Ben stared at the vehicle. “It’s a long shot, but it sure beats waiting around here to get eaten doesn’t it?” The cop then turned to the group behind him, “Anyone here know how to hotwire a vehicle?” Zim stepped forward with his hand raised. “I do.” Ben looked at him with a look of curiosity. He had never in his life seen a kid with green skin before. He figured it was either a skin condition or full body paint. Either way, the kid said he knew how to hotwire a car, so hopefully he did.

“Alright kid, it’s up to you then.” Zim began to walk over, but was stopped by Gaz who turned him towards herself. “Be careful Zim. Don’t go getting yourself killed or I’ll have to bring you back just to do it again,” she told him. Zim smirked, “Don’t worry sweet stuff, I’ll be okay.” The two then kissed, which caused Dib to glare at Zim. After they finished Zim walked by Dib who was still glaring at him. Zim just smirked at him and went over to the window. “When you get it started, bring it around to the front entrance.” Ben told Zim. Zim just nodded in agreement. Pushing the window open he looked down at the bus roof. He noticed there some zombies roaming about but none of them were paying attention to the bus. Zim held his breath. ‘Well here goes nothin’,’ he thought to himself.

He jumped from the window toward the roof. He landed on top of it but not without making quite a bit of noise. The zombies wandering around, turned towards the bus, and seeing Zim on it, let out a snarl and rushed the thing. Zim got to his feet and ran over to the hatch, pulling it off the vehicle and tossing it aside. He jumped in as the creatures began surrounding the vehicle, pounding on it vigorously. Seeing Zim had made it in the vehicle, Ben turned towards the others. “Okay, I’m gonna open the door and lead us to the front entrance. Soldier boy,” he gestured toward Brad in the corner. “You take up the rear. Any of those things get near us, shoot ‘em.” “That won’t do any good sir,” was Brad’s reply. “Why not?” Ben asked back. “Those things are unstoppable. We’ve tried shooting them, but they keep coming.”

“You have to shoot them in the head.” Gaz said. “Haven’t any of you seen any of George A. Romero’s Dead films? They specifically state, that in order to bring down a zombie, one must either damage or destroy the brain of the living dead in order to destroy it.” “This isn’t a movie okay?” Chunk said to Gaz. “Just because you saw it in a movie doesn’t mean it’ll work.” Gaz turned toward Chunk and walked toward him. “I tried it on one of them just this morning with a baseball bat, when I was finished its head looked like a Jackson Pollock painting,” she stated simply. “It stopped moving so I think that’s a good indication it worked.” Everyone else in the room stared at Gaz in disbelief at how calm she stated what she had done. She ignored them, turning toward Ben and Brad. “So are we leaving now?” she asked the two. “Yeah, yeah, we’re leaving. Just watch out for any of those things.” Ben said.

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Zim was sweating bullets now; this was turning out to be even harder than he was expecting it to be. The zombies pounding on the bus weren’t helping things either. “God dammit, why is this so hard?” Zim asked as he continued working on the vehicle. He wiped some sweat from his brow and continued working. ‘I think this should be the last thing,’ he thought as he connected two wires together. The sound of the engine starting was a good indication that it worked. Zim got up off the floor and got behind the wheel. “All right, now let’s see what this baby can do,” he said as he put it in gear and drove it out of its parking spot. He hit several zombies, hearing their bodies’ crunch like so many dried twigs. “Stupid zombies, though this is fun.” Zim said to himself. He finally made it to the front and parked the thing. “Now to play the waiting game,” he said.

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Back in Skool, the group had made their way through most of the building without seeing a single zombie. “This is weird, shouldn’t there be more running around?” Carl asked as they made their way down the hallway slowly. “Not necessarily,” Dib said. “ Many may still be feeding or might have left in search for food elsewhere.” “Oh well that’s a pleasant image.” The Letter M, whose real name was Matthew, said. “Shh! Quiet!” Ben said from the front. He peeked around a corner down a different hallway. They were almost to the front door and he wanted to make sure nothing surprised them. He saw a small group of about four zombies feeding on a man in the middle of the hallway.

He turned back to the others. “Okay, there’s about four of those things down the hall,” he whispered. “If we’re quiet enough, we can probably slip by unnoticed and get out. Now follow me but go slowly.” Ben then beckoned everyone on, leading them slowly away from the zombies. Carl though chanced a glance over at the things and accidentally bumped into a janitor’s cart knocking some things off. This alerted the zombies and upon seeing the fresh meat let out their characteristic snarl. “RUN!” shouted Dib as the zombies began chasing them. The group began making a mad dash to the front door, more and more zombies coming after them. They all made it to the front door and burst out seeing Zim waiting for them. Zim saw them coming and threw the doors open. “Get in!” he shouted at everyone. As they piled in, the zombies were hot on their heels. Zim slammed the doors closed before they could get on with the others though and Zim immediately drove off. “Where do we go now?” Brian asked. “To the mall.” Gaz said. “It should be safe there.”

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