Author's note:

Hey, hey, how's it going readers? Welcome to my first (and maybe last) Recess Fanfiction. You're probably here because you either like Recess, you've seen my other story I'm writing and want to read a different one by me, or a combination of both.

Honestly speaking though, I hadn't even heard of this show until I stumbled upon it randomly. I instantly liked it. It's one of Disney's best. And after I got started with my fanfiction writing with my Total Drama Fanfiction, I eventually decided to write one for Recess too. Now, I knew that I wanted it to be set when the kids were all old enough to be in high school. But I didn't really feel like writing a high school drama. I'm not really that guy.

I wanted something...different. And then I decided to put the T.J., Spinelli, and the rest of the gang and kids at Third Street School through their worst nightmare: a zombie apocalypse.

Now, I've done some (not much) research, and I don't think anyone's actually tried to write a zombie apocalypse fanfiction featuring the Recess characters. If there is one, then it must be either very obscure or I'm a terrible researcher. If you do happen to know of one, shoot me a PM and I'll check it out. But anyway, if by some small chance that I'm actually right for once, then this may be the first actual Zombie Fanfiction for Recess.

Now, as I wrote this, I had a bit of trouble with the whole thing. After all, it is hard to imagine the gang and other characters from the series fighting zombies and dying. I may even abandon this project if I run out of ideas. But I'm going to give it a go and see what people think.

Just to warn you all though, this fanfiction is yet another side projects to other side projects to my main writing focus. Total Drama Danger Zones will still have priority in this world of side projects, but I'll update every now and then for this story. May not be for a few months starting in June due to my summer job, but we'll see!

One last thing, and this goes without saying: I do not own Recess. Recess is owned by Paul and Joe...and I guess Disney too.

Anyway, now that I've probably written more words in this author's note than in the chapter itself, let's get started. See you on the other side!

Journal entry 457

It's been eight years since everything happened. Since the zombies came and the world came to an end. Everything just seemed so simple back then. We were just fifth graders having fun during recess.

Now, we are some of the last people alive.

Others have come to Fort Tender over the years. Tired, scared people running from their undead friends and family.

And they're all looking to me for leadership.

I didn't take up leading this group easily. I was still a kid when this whole thing happened. But the others encouraged me to lead. And…it's probably what Spinelli would've wanted.

I still get nightmares on what happened. Mikey says that it's because I haven't made peace with her death.

No, not death. I refuse to believe that she is dead.

Of course, Mikey says that that's part of the problem. That I need to make peace and accept that Spinelli is dead.

But I won't. Not until I see her rotting, zombified corpse.

In the early days, we still got together. The gang. Though we're never going to be all together again. Not without Spinelli.

But now we barely see each other. Vince is usually out scavenging for supplies or looking for survivors. Gus is busy making sure everything in Fort Tender runs smoothly. Mikey works with Pastor Prickly for their sermons. And I barely even see Gretchen anymore since she's working on her cure.

I miss those old days back at Third Street. Back then I was making plans to solve problems on the playground. Now I make plans that could lead to people dying.

Everything was so simple back then. We were happy back then.

Now everything's gone to hell. A whole lot of people from those old days are dead or gone.

Sometimes I—

A knock on the door interrupted T.J. from his thoughts. He looked up from his journal, closing it quickly. "Come in!" he called.

The door opened, and Randall Weems entered. "The latest intelligence reports, T.J.," he said, handing him a stack of papers.

"Good work, Randall," T.J. told him. "Anything of interest."

"Just the usual chaos. Marauders here and there. Some rumors of survivors. But mostly zombies."

"Has Vince's team checked in yet?"

"About an hour ago," Randall replied. "Francis said that they're going to be a little later than expected. Apparently, there was more supplies and zombies in the area than Vince expected."

"Make sure that they check in again as soon as possible," T.J. ordered. "I don't want anyone dying out there today."

"I'll tell Theresa to get word through to them," Randall said. He paused, then added. "There's nothing on Spinelli in there. I know you were wondering."

T.J. sighed. "I figured as much, Randall."

"Look, T.J.," Randall told him, "I know you're not giving up on her, but it's time to face facts. Even if she did get away from the initial outbreak, no one could survive out there this long alone."

"She could," T.J. insisted after a moment of silence. "She's the toughest kid in school."

"Was," Randall corrected. "Considering there is no school and no Spinelli."

"That'll be all, Randall," said T.J.

Randall hesitated for a moment, then left T.J. alone with his thoughts once more.

T.J. sighed, rubbing his ragged brown hair. On the day of the outbreak, he had lost his old baseball cap in all the chaos. He missed that hat, but not as much as he missed Spinelli.

He glanced at the photo that was on his desk. The one that had all six of them together. One of the only things that he had been able to save before the apocalypse.

He traced the image with his fingers, imaging what Spinelli would say if she saw him moping. Probably something angry but motivating.

T.J. stood up. Just thinking about Spinelli again made him feel even worse about losing her. He needed a walk to clear his head.

T.J. walked out of his office, heading in no particular direction. Along the way, he passed by several other survivors, who nodded in recognition at him or said hello.

Fort Tender had originally been a military base. All the military personal that had been stationed there had been relocated to places that were heavily infested with zombies. None of them came back. For all T.J. knew, there was no military left. He certainly hadn't seen anyone.

As he walked, he passed by the shooting range, where he could see several people, including Butch, shooting at various targets; the cafeteria, where people were enjoying the food that had been scrounged up; and the sparring room, where different members of their fighting force were sparring each other.

Finally, he stopped in the control room, where Theresa was working alone at her spot.

"Oh, hello T.J.," she said, swiveling around in her wheelchair to face him. She grabbed a handful of chips from a bag next to her and stuffed them into her mouth.

"Did Randall give you a message to relay to Vince's team?" T.J. asked.

"Oh yes. Vince said that he and his team were on their way back," Theresa replied. "They found several crates of food and weapons."

"Good," T.J. said. "Make sure that Vince reports to be when he gets back."

"Of course."

T.J. turned to go, but paused for a moment. "Do you think that it's crazy for me to keep thinking that Spinelli is still out there?"

Theresa thought about it for a moment. "I've seen you and your friends pull off some amazing things at Third Street," she eventually said. "Even when things seemed hopeless, you still believed that you could do it. So it's completely fine for you to keep hoping that she's still alive. Sure, it seems like she's dead, but there may still be a chance that she's alive. And even if it's just you that believes it, then there's still hope."

T.J. smiled. Theresa was always optimistic about everything. She was always kind and sweet, even back when she was known as Cornchip Girl back at Third Street. He could see exactly why Gus had a crush on her.

And thanks to her, he knew exactly what he had to do.

"Thanks, Theresa," he told her, leaving the control room.

"Good luck, T.J.," Theresa said after him.

T.J. was waiting in the garage when the large truck pulled in. As usual, Francis was driving, with Vince riding shotgun. On the back of the truck were Ashley and the Diggers.

Vince immediately saw T.J. waiting for them and narrowed his eyes. "Unload the truck," he ordered the others, getting out of the vehicle and walking over to T.J.

"Teej, man, what's wrong?" he asked. "You never wait around for us to come back from our mission. You just wait for me to send my report to your office."

"Vince buddy, I need you to get everyone together," T.J. told him. "Gus, Mikey, Gretch—everyone."

"Why? What's wrong?"

T.J. took a deep breath. "We're going home."

Wow. Short beginning I know. But the chapters will get longer...in theory. I wanted to start out with a short one mainly to get you all a feel for the situation. And wow is this situation bad.

Before you all go crying on the reviews and flood my message box with complaints that Spinelli is seemingly dead, I'm going to just ask you a question: Do you really think that I would kill my favorite member of the gang a), off scene, and b), in the past? Do you?

Well, given that this is the apocalypse, it may be possible. Or it may not be. Who knows!

I eventually decided to write my own zombie fanfiction taking place in a cartoon after reading hyperborea's Total Drama zombie apocalypse fanfiction titled "Undead Drama" for the umpteenth time. Go check it out sometime; it's really an amazing story.

There will be a later chapter that will be a flashback chapter explaining exactly how the gang first encountered the zombie apocalypse and how they got to this new Fort Tender.

Yes, a bunch of side characters are dead at this point. I saved several of my favorites along with a few others so I can torture them more. Expect maybe a few more of them to die. Or not. Literally haven't really thought much on this story past a certain point. Actually, I literally just came up with how the outbreak started today, and boy is it going to blow you away. It does have something to do with a certain thing from the series.

Yes, I'm shipping Gus and Cornchip Girl. Why? From what I've seen of them together in the series, it does make sense.

I've written up some character descriptions on how I imagine that the characters would look like at this point. You'll be able to find these on my profile. I'll add more as new characters are introduced.

Yes, I will probably add some OCs into here, simply because I need more people to interact with the gang...and because the zombies need more brains to munch on.

I think that's about it. Don't forget to leave a review (they let me know if I'm doing a good/bad/worse/deadly job), and stay tuned for Chapter II, coming sometime in the future. Until next time, this is Guest 1138 reminding you to never play hopscotch on the highway. Ciao!