Scenario 13: Knee Deep in the Dead

Desmond ran down the street panting for breath. His arms ached from the weight of the jerry cans and his fingers felt as if they were about to fall off. He could hear them behind him, groaning and snarling as they clumsily made their way through the maze of abandoned cars that cluttered the street.

"Crap, crap, crap!" Desmond thought desperately as he ran.

His legs were beginning to feel like Jell-O and threatened to fall beneath him with every step he took. He had no idea where the two American boys had gone. After the fight at the gas station those things showed up out of nowhere, attracted by the sound of battle. Darren had yelled for them to run and Desmond, Kadic's track star, had wasted no time putting distance between himself and the undead monsters behind him. Now Desmond was alone with no weapon and no plan. His mind wandered to a conversation he had had with his friends just the other day. They were sitting at their usual table and talking about a movie they wanted to see. Desmond had a track race that afternoon and he was busy covering his fries in ketchup, paying little to no attention to the banter of his friends.

"Think it'll do the original any justice?" Antony asked.

"Doubt it." Fred said popping a fry into his mouth. "They got the original director and star of the film producing it though so maybe it won't be that bad."

"I looked up the director online last night. This is his first directing gig that isn't a short." Joan said.

"Crap." Fred sighed.

"This series always freaked me out." Blaine said. "The idea of being stuck alone in the middle of nowhere and all of my friends turning into monsters, leaving me alone…"

He shuddered.

"Don't worry Blaine, I'll protect you from the monsters!" Antony said with a laugh.

"Yeah, you'll make a perfect meat shield!" Fred said poking Antony's chubby stomach.

They ate; they talked, laughed and insulted each other's mothers. Desmond won his race that day; leaving his opponents behind him in the dust in a matter of seconds with his friends cheering for him every step of the way. After the race they embraced him and hoisted him in the air on their shoulders. Desmond felt ten feet tall that day. After the race they went out for pizza to celebrate. Desmond felt the cruel, cold knife of irony stab into his heart as he remembered what Blaine said to him that night.

"Desmond doesn't have to outrun the zombies; he just has to outrun us!"

Desmond had done just that. He didn't mean to. He had a nasty habit of doing that. Of going somewhere else when he ran. He couldn't turn it off, it just happened and by the time he was out of the cafeteria it was too late. They were gone and Desmond found himself wishing he wasn't the fastest runner at Kadic.

Sweat and tears streamed down his face as he ran. Ahead of him a zombie staggered out from behind a tow truck. It was dressed in black coveralls and missing its left arm just below the elbow. It licked the bloody flesh around its stump and spotted Desmond ahead of him. It bared its bloody teeth and snarled at the boy. Desmond slid to a stop and cursed. He didn't have the strength the fight the monster. The zombie stumbled towards him with its remaining hand outstretched.

"Aw come on!" Desmond croaked miserably.

This was it. Death by zombie. Desmond let a shuddering breath escape his mouth and he closed his eyes. A bizarre sense of peace washed over him as the zombie closed in. No more pain, no more fear. Maybe he'd see his friends again where he was going. Desmond desperately tried to come up with any final confessions. There had to be something he regretted. He felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder. Desmond opened his eyes and saw the zombie bare its teeth.

"I should have asked out Joan." Desmond said softly.

Suddenly there was a blur of movement from his right and a blurry figure tackled the zombie. The zombie slammed into a car with a bang Desmond gasped.

"D-Darren!" He cried.

Darren grabbed the zombie by the front of its coveralls and slammed it into another car. The zombie growled as Darren raised his hatchet and brought it down on the zombie's head with a wet crunch. He pulled his weapon free and let the zombie slide to the ground.

"Keep movin'." Darren rasped his throat sounding as dry as Desmonds. "It's clear up ahead."

Desmond nodded and took off running before the pain in his legs could stop him. The road ahead of him was indeed clear of any infected. Corpses with severed heads and bashed in skulls littered the ground like a macabre trail of safety.

"Follow the blood covered road." Desmond thought.

Occasionally Desmond would catch a glimpse of Darren and Chris and he felt his stomach clench at the brutal efficiency the boys displayed. Darren buried his hatchet into a zombie's jaw and pulled the weapon free before kicking the zombie into Chris's direction. Chris swung his bat and sent the zombie's head rolling along the ground. Darren delivered a powerful right hook and knocked a zombie flat on its back. Chris brought his bat down on the zombie's skull and crushed it like a watermelon at a Gallagher show. Desmond silently thanked God for rednecks and followed the two boys as they carved a path of death back to the school.

"We gotta warn the others." Darren said pulling his hatchet from a sprinter's chest. "We're gonna have company."

Desmond nodded and ignored the fact he didn't have limitless stamina. He gritted his teeth and pushed. His legs felt like they were going to explode. The three boys ran through the side gate of Kadic and sprinted across the soccer field, making it to the garage without any interference from the undead. Chris pulled the door up and a second later Desmond ran inside with Darren right behind him. Chris stepped into the garage after them and lowered the door as quietly as he could. Chris peeled off his mask and fell onto the cold concrete floor of the garage in a pant. Darren leaned against a wall for support and pulled his mask off as well. In the center of the room Desmond was on his knees gasping for air. He released his grip on the jerry cans and flexed his fingers in pain. The three boys were soaked in sweat and blood, their clothes stuck to their bodies. Desmond sighed in despair as warmth spread through his pants as he pissed himself. He didn't care. He felt he had earned it after having run the hundred yard sprint through hell. He was just glad he had worn his black jogging pants that day.

"That fuckin' sucked." Chris moaned.

Darren nodded in silent agreement and glanced up. He quickly pushed himself off of the wall and staggered across the room. He grabbed a coffee cup off of the teacher's desk and dumped the pencils and pens it held onto the floor. He stumbled over to a greasy sink on the wall and turned the knob silently praying that the sink wasn't just for show. There was a rumbling sound and cold water sputtered out of the faucet. Darren held the cup under the water and filled it up to the brim. He drank it down greedily as Chris looked up at the sound of running water and jumped up to his feet. He made his way to the sink and shoved Darren out of the way. Chris stuck his head under the water and let it run over his head. He flipped his hair back with a pleasured moan as if he had been baptized in holy water. Darren refilled the cup and knelt down next to Desmond. He tiled the cup into Desmond's mouth that drank it down gratefully.

"Thanks." Desmond croaked.

He rearranged himself into a sitting position with his back against the bus for support. He took the cup from Darren who went back to the sink and took a page from Chris's book. Desmond drained the coffee cup and immediately regretted it. Chris motioned for the cup and Desmond handed it to him.

"Just bring me the sink!" Desmond called as Chris filled the cup with water.

"How many ya think there were?" Chris asked handing the cup back to Desmond.

"Too fuckin' many." Darren said wiping water from his face.

"What the fuck are we supposed to do?" Chris asked. "Those things'll be here soon and then we'll be up to our tits in shufflers! Again!"

"Get the gas into the bus. I'll radio the others." Darren said.

Ulrich covered his head in his hands and waited for the end to come. He had died before on Lyoko but that was never that big of a deal. A monster would catch him off guard and blast him with a laser or William would cleave into him with that horse cutter of his but either way the sensation was more or less painless. Numbness like a limb falling asleep would spread through his body as he devirtualized and the next thing he knew he was back on earth feeling like he had stepped out of a microwave. Ulrich wasn't counting on dying on earth being as painless or as quick especially when his cause of death was mutilation by zombie.

Ulrich had heard that in ones time of dying their life would flash before their eyes. He learned that wasn't exactly true. He didn't see everything. Just glimpses of the things he loved the most. He saw his friends and to a much lesser degree his family. He saw the birthday when he got the sword from his parent's, the same sword he was letting Terry use. He saw Odd sitting in the cafeteria gorging on pancakes and making bad jokes. Jeremie showed him a computer game and smiled proudly at the look on Ulrich's face when he told him he had programmed it himself. Aelita was sitting at the piano in the music room playing a piece of classical music and randomly switching to something more modern in a heartbeat, before effortlessly switching back to Mozart or Chopin. Yumi smiled at him from across the room. Ulrich felt tears run down his cheeks. Time seemed to slow down around him. Delmas's footsteps thundered on the hardwood floor. The end was coming. Death was at his door.

"I'm so sorry everyone!" He thought.

There was a wet ripping sound and Ulrich flinched violently. A few seconds passed but Ulrich didn't feel the cold, grey hands of death tear into his body. Ulrich moved his had away from his eyes and looked up. Delmas was standing over him and the blade of Ulrich's machete was sticking out of his chest. Dark red blood oozed from the wound and trickled down his shirt. Ulrich was confused for a second before he realized what had happened.

"I'm sorry." Sissi gasped from behind her father.

Delmas growled weakly and fell to his knees in front of Ulrich. Sissi kept a tight grip on the machete and the blade slid out of her father's torso with a wet squelch.

"I'm sorry!" She said again as she raised the machete in trembling hands.

She swung the machete as hard as she could and buried the blade into her father's neck. Ulrich's eyes widened in fear as Principal Delmas choked on his own blood. Delmas craned his neck backwards and looked back at his daughter. His mouth moved slightly but no sound escaped his lips other than a wet gurgle.

"I'm sorry!"

She pulled the machete free and swung again and again as she desperately hacked through flesh and muscle and bone. Ulrich watched in silent horror as Delmas's head finally rolled off his shoulders and bounced on the floor like a soccer ball. Delmas's headless body fell to the floor with a thud and Sissi dropped the machete. She fell to her knees and covered her face with her bloody hands.

"D-don't get up!" She wailed. "PLEASE DON'T GET UP!"

Ulrich slumped against the wall unable to move, his eyes glued to the insanely fucked up scene in front of him. Sissi was covered in her father's blood and her body was shaking in sobs. Delmas's head stared at Ulrich from where it had landed his eyes devoid of life and his bloody mouth was twisted in a sad, almost mournful way. He suddenly looked human and Ulrich felt like he was going to be sick. Trembling Ulrich rose to his feet and picked up his machete from the floor. Sissi was still sobbing into her hands and Ulrich couldn't think anything to say to her. What could he possibly say to her to make this okay? Her father was dead, murdered in his own office by his baby girl. She had brutally decapitated him with a machete. She had saved Ulrich's life.

"T-thank… you." Ulrich said.

She didn't seem to hear him. She kept crying. Ulrich looked up and spotted the picture frame that Delmas had knocked off of his desk. Ulrich picked it up and numbly stared at the picture behind the broken glass. Sissi was grinning from ear to ear and holding a large stuffed moose in her arms. Her father stood next to her and he was wearing a goofy looking hat with a moose sewn onto the cap and he was blushing slightly. They looked so happy together. It was impossible to believe the fate that awaited them. Ulrich wanted to pretend that the people in the photo were alive and well somewhere else, that they were safe and happy together. Not decapitated and on the verge of a mental breakdown. Ulrich shook the glass out of the frame and pulled the picture out. He knelt down next to Sissi and held the picture out to her.

"Non Omnis Moriar." Ulrich said.

Sissi looked up at him like she had forgotten he was there.

"W-what?" She asked.

"Non omnis moriar." He repeated. "From English class last week remember? It means "I will not die completely" or something like that. Your father loved you so much Sissi. Don't let that"- he motioned to the headless body- "be your last memory of him. You're a part of him. He will never leave you completely as long as you remember him and love him even when he's gone."

He pressed the picture into Sissi's hands.

"He will never leave you." He said.

Sissi looked down at the picture and made a choking sound. Her shoulders shook with fresh sobs and she fell forward into Ulrich's arms. She sobbed into his shirt and Ulrich gently (awkwardly) wrapped his arms around her body.

"It's okay." He said. "It's going to be okay."

Suddenly Ulrich felt her lips press against his. He felt a shock surge through his body and he wasn't sure what to do. He didn't kiss her back and after a few seconds of this awkward embrace Sissi's grip on his arm loosened and she pulled away from him. Her eyes gazed down at her father's picture.

"S-sissi." Ulrich said. "We uh, we have to go. It isn't safe here."

Sissi didn't say anything. Still not looking at Ulrich she let him take her hand and lead her out of the office and back out into the hallway. In the shadows ahead of them he could see Kiwi sitting on the floor waiting for them. The dog had a grim expression on its face that reminded Ulrich of pity. Ulrich and Kiwi stared at each other for a while. Kiwi whimpered and walked up to Sissi. He lowered his head onto her foot and whinnied sadly.

"You know when someone's hurting don't you boy?" Ulrich thought.

Suddenly Kiwi's ears perked up. He stood and turned around peering intently into the darkness of the administration building's lobby.

"What is it boy?" Ulrich asked.

It was a rhetoric question but Ulrich received an answer anyway. There was a soft click and Ulrich was blinded by a bright light. He flinched and raised his free hand over his eyes.

"There he is!" Desmond said. "Hey! Ulrich!"

"Smart dog." Chris muttered. "Ugly little shit though."

Ulrich lowered his hand and saw Desmond, Darren and Chris standing in the lobby. Kiwi was between the two groups and wagging his tail happily.

"We found him outside." Desmond said. "He got our attention and led us to you!"

"You look like shit Stern." Darren said.

His gaze was burning into Ulrich's and his hand was positioned over his pistol ready to draw. Ulrich scoffed in annoyance and felt his grip tighten on his machete.

"We're fine!" Ulrich said. "We just ran into some trouble."

"Where's Delmas?" Desmond asked.

Ulrich felt his stomach turn. Sissi's grip tightened in his hand and he could feel her body quivering next to him.

"H-h-h-he-" Sissi choked.

"Come on." Darren interrupted. "There's been a change of plans. We got a whole damned horde of those monsters on its way here and they'll be here any minute now."

Ulrich nodded, grateful for Darren's intervention. He pulled Sissi behind him and they made their way through the schoolyard of Kadic. Most of the infected were dead by now or spread far enough around the schoolyard that they didn't pose an immediate threat. They had entered the classroom building and had almost made it to the stairwell when Darren held up a hand to stop them.

"Listen!" He said quietly.

There was a clattering noise echoing through the halls followed by a hissing.

"What is that?" Desmond asked.

Footsteps.

"Get in that classroom! Hide!" Darren whispered.

They ran into a classroom and Desmond quietly closed the door behind him. Ulrich grabbed Sissi and ducked behind the teacher's desk while Darren hid behind the door. Desmond rolled under a long computer desk while Chris turned around and around looking for a hiding spot. He started to duck under a student's desk but he was too big. There was a supply closet in the back of the room that was cluttered with old text books and other supplies and again, Chris was too big.

"God damn it Chris!" Darren hissed through clenched teeth.

"Fuck you!" Chris whispered back.

"Fuck you sasquatch! Get your hulkin' ass outta sight or I will destroy you!" Darren snarled.

Chris flipped Darren the bird and the door knob began to jiggle. Chris cursed under his breath and spotted an open window. He ran and dove through the window as the door opened behind him. The overwhelming scent of cigarettes, cheap booze, garbage, and axe body spray entered the room, pouring off of a lanky figure in almost visible stench vapors.

"Burner." Darren thought.

The teacher's lounge was in a state of disarray as the students scampered around jamming everything they could into the handful of bags they had with them. The last of the food and water, the ammo and what few makeshift weapons they had. Jeremie zipped up the bag with his laptop in it and sighed.

"Where are you guys?" He thought.

He glanced down at the radio and thought about checking on them. No, not now. Darren said to maintain radio silence, that he would call them if they needed back up. No sense in giving away their position. After they returned with the gas Darren said that they had got into a fight with some thugs and that the infected were attracted to their location by the sound of the fight. They were followed by the infected back to the school and soon they would be overrun again. They had to leave the school now. Jeremie looked around the room and felt his heart sink into his chest.

"Aelita?" He asked. "Where's Aelita?!"

"Here I am!" She said dashing into the room. "I remembered there is an extra first aid kit in the biology lab."

She placed the first aid kit on the table, opened it and began rummaging through its contents.

"Don't wander off like that again!" Jeremie said angrily. "What if something happened?"

"I'm fine Jeremie it was just down the hall." Aelita said closing the first aid kit.

"Look at me!" Jeremie said pulling her around to face him.

Aelita began to snap at Jeremie but stopped when she saw the look of fear and concern on Jeremie's face. She realized she had just done something truly horrible to her boyfriend and immediately regretted it.

"Please don't do that again!" Jeremie begged. "Not without telling me where you're going at the very least!"

Aelita smiled softly and kissed Jeremie on the cheek.

"I won't." She said hugging him. "I promise."

"Guys?" Tina called from the doorway. "You're gonna want to see this."

She led them upstairs to the roof. She pointed to the schoolyard below and Jeremie looked through the telescope.

"Those aren't zombies." He said.

"Then what is it?" Aelita asked.

"It's them." Yumi said. "The burners!"

He body was visibly shaking. Her grip on her katana was so tight the flesh on her knuckles turned white. She remembered fighting them before getting to the school. She remembered killing.

"Come on." Jeremie said. "We have to warn the others."

Down stairs the burner was wearing a red hoodie and a black ski mask. He held a long knife in one hand and a can of spray paint in the other. He wandered around the room singing a rap song to himself in broken English. He shook the spray can up and began spraying red paint all over the walls. He snickered to himself as he worked, spraying obscenities and crude pictures of dicks all over the wall until the can was empty. He spit on the floor, tossed the empty can away, and wandered over to the corner. Desmond held his breath as the burner walked past his desk. The burner unzipped his fly and began to piss into the storage closet that Chris had left open.

"Vous aimez ce ne salope pas?" He muttered as he peed on the cover of a book with a young girl's face on it.

Ulrich's radio crackled. Jeremie's voice came through the speaker, unforgivably loud in the silent classroom.

"Ulrich! There are burners in the school and-"

"Shit!" Darren muttered.

The burner whirled around, his dick in one hand and his knife in the other. Darren burst out from behind the open door and charged at the burner with his hatchet.

"Fuck!" The burner cried.

Darren brought the hatchet down but missed as the burner stepped out of the way. The hatchet blade buried into the table next to the burner and the burner lashed out with his knife, slicing Darren's arm. The burner's pants fell down the rest of the way and Darren stumbled back clutching his wound. Chris popped his head up and whistled. The burner looked up and a brick hit him in the face. He screamed in pain as blood gushed from his nose and he slid to the floor. Darren pulled his hatchet out of the table and brought it down on the burner's skull. The burner's body convulsed and Darren pulled the hatchet out and buried it in the burner's head again.

"He's down." Darren gasped.

Chris pulled himself into the classroom and jogged over to Darren.

"You okay?" He asked. "Shit man."

"I'm fine." Darren said taking a bandana from Chris and tying it around his arm.

"Jesus." Desmond said looking down at the burner.

Darren unclipped the radio from his belt and held it to his mouth.

"What part of radio silence do you not understand?" He snarled.

"What happened? I heard a struggle." Jeremie asked.

"Apparently there are burners in the school Jeremie." Darren said sarcastically.

"We're fine Jeremie." Ulrich said. "Just make sure everyone's ready to go!"

"Fuckin' idiot!" Darren muttered picking up the burner's knife.

"Did you hear what he was singin'?" Chris asked.

"Yeah." Darren nodded. "It would be fuckin' ICP. Check the hallway. Make sure there ain't any more of 'em."

Chris moved over to the door and peeked outside.

"S'clear." He said after a pause.

"Let's get movin'" Darren said.

They left the classroom and quietly moved down the hall with Darren and Chris taking point. As they neared the stairwell they heard the sound of hushed voices coming from around the corner up ahead. A red flashlight beam lit up the dark hallway and the voices came closer.

"Shit. At least two more." Chris said.

"Hide." Darren said.

Everyone ducked behind lockers and in doorways. Darren crouched behind a garbage can and Chris hid behind the door that led to the stairs. A zombie stumbled out of a classroom and the burners laughed at it.

"Hey verifier cette merde!" A burner said.

The zombie made eye contact with Darren and moaned, raising a hand towards him. There was a hissing sound and a jet of flames spread out and lit up the hallway and the zombie. The burner's laughter echoed down the hallway as the flaming zombie fell to the ground.

"Putain genial!" The second burner exclaimed.

The second burner walked up the zombie and raised an axe in the air. He brought it down on the zombie's neck and chopped off its head.

"Four!"

The burner hit the zombies head with the flat side of his axe and sent the flaming head flying down the hallway. It soared through the air like a fire ball and rolled across the ground, making it all the way back to the end of the hall before stopping as it bumped into the door. The burners cheered.

Chris looked over to Darren and nudged his head towards the burner's direction. Darren held up a hand and began making gestures with his hand and fingers. Chris nodded and readied his weapon.

The burners high fived and each pulled out a crudely wrapped blunt. They let them off of the burning corpse and began walking down the hall.

"Hey Skunk! Ou avez-vous aller?" A burner called.

They wandered down the hall smoking and talking. Ulrich flattened himself against the wall behind the locker as much as he could. Darren readied his knife and hatchet and Chris slipped out from behind the door as the burners walked by.

Darren struck first.

He jammed the knife into the burner with the axe's side and twisted it. The burner screamed and the second one jumped back in alarm. He cursed and raised a can of spray paint and a lighter ready to immolate both friend and foe. Chris brought his bat down around the burner's throat and pulled him backwards. The burner gagged and dropped his weapons, choking and struggling against Chris's superior mass. Darren's burner shoved him away and raised his axe to fight. The two stared each other down for a moment before the burner raised his axe and charged. Darren raised his hatchet and stopped the axe just under the head. He jerked his hand back and disarmed the burner, letting the axe fall to the floor with a clatter. Before the burner cold react Darren had slipped behind him and kicked out the back of the burner's knee with his foot. The burner fell backwards with a gasp and screamed as Darren grabbed his hair, pulled his head back and plunged his knife into his heart. The remaining burner's face had turned an ugly shade of purple and his arms went limp. Chris released his grip on the burner and he fell to the ground.

"Where did you guys learn to fight like that?" Desmond asked nervously. "Seriously you guys fight like commandos!"

"It's called Okichitaw. It's a Native American martial arts style. My dad taught me." Darren said.

"And what was-" He began moving his hand around randomly.

"Sign language." Chris muttered.

"What, are you part of some kind of teenage super-secret anti zombie slash gangbanger task force or something?" Desmond asked.

"Yeah Desmond that's exactly what we are." Chris sighed sarcastically.

Ulrich looked down at the dead burners and felt a little sick. Killing the zombies, the infected was one thing but these two were people; the man back in the classroom was a person. If he and his friends survived in this world what were they going to become? He thought of Yumi and that vacant look in her eye when they were sitting in the teacher's lounge. He wanted to see her. He started to say that they needed to keep moving but something caught his eye. It was the graffiti that the burners had been tagging on the walls of the school.

"No way." He said softly. "It's impossible."

Desmond stepped next to him.

"Ulrich? Let's go man."

He looked at the graffiti on the wall.

"It's just some gang sign, what's gotten into you? Let's go!"

He grabbed Ulrich's shoulder and pulled him away, the blood red eye of Xana watched them as the children climbed the stairs.

"Pack your bags kids the school bus is leaving in five!" Chris said as they entered the lounge.

"KIWI!" Odd exclaimed.

Romantic music began to play as Odd skipped towards Kiwi through a field of roses and dog treats. Kiwi barked happily and ran towards Odd. Kiwi jumped into the air and Odd caught him in his arms.

"Kiwi!" Odd cried clinging to his little diggity dog.

Kiwi licked his master's face barking yelping in joy.

"Jeremie!" Ulrich said slamming the door shut behind him and jerking Odd out of his day dream. "We have to talk!"

"It can wait Stern." Darren said. "We have to leave now!"

"No it can't!" Ulrich snapped. "Just- Just get everything together! We'll be right behind you!"

"In five minutes we are leaving this god forsaken school. If you and your fuckin' friends aren't on that bus you can hitchhike outta this damn city got it?" Darren said.

Ulrich glared at him and grabbed Jeremie's arm.

"Come on!" He said to the others.

The others exchanged uneasy looks and followed Ulrich out of the lounge.

"Here you go boy, go to mommy." Odd said handing Kiwi to Sam. "We'll be right back Sam. Just make sure all of the food is packed 'kay?"

Ulrich glared at William and nudged his head towards the door. Ulrich led them all to the roof and began pacing the roof top angrily.

"Ulrich calm down!" Yumi said. "What's this all about? We have to get out of here!"

"It's Xana!" Ulrich all but yelled at his friends.

"What?!" Jeremie exclaimed. "What are you-"

"Those burners down in the classrooms? They were tagging the walls with the eye of Xana!" Ulrich said.

"What?! That's impossible!" Aelita cried.

"It's true!"

"No way." William said. "That's impossible! You must be mistaken!"

"I saw it with my own eyes! They were tagging all over the school and they were searching for something, clearing the rooms! They were looking for us! Xana is behind this I know it!"

"Ulrich that's impossible." Yumi said. "Xana's been gone for months now, months!"

"Is it though?!" Ulrich asked. "What if he survived somehow and he's just been biding his time, waiting to strike back! Jeremie?!"

Jeremie was silent. He sighed, removed his glasses and rubbed the fatigue from his eyes with his other hand.

"I- I guess it's possible. Not very likely but anything is possible." Jeremie said looking at Aelita. "But I scanned and scanned and scanned for days after our final encounter with him. Weeks and nothing came up on the scanner. As far as I can tell Xana is gone."

"But what if he isn't?" Ulrich asked. "If Xana is behind all of this then we can stop him! We just have to go to Lyoko and check! We could stop all of this!"

"No. No we can't. Not really." Jeremie said. "Even if, and I mean if, Xana survived. If he somehow managed to cause a zombie apocalypse-"

"He did it before." Odd muttered.

"If he is the cause of all of this and we stop him and launch a return to the past then everyone who has died…"

"They won't come back." Yumi said softly.

"It's better than being surrounded by flesh eating ghouls and pyromaniacs!" Ulrich argued. "All that I'm asking is that we check! It's the only lead we have!"

"How do you propose we get to the factory?" Jeremie asked. "We could never make it on foot and the forest is filled with those things. There are burners in the city and what if there are more of those things like Jim out there?"

"Don't even say that." Odd shuddered.

"The sewer!" Ulrich said. "We can get there through the sewer by the boiler room!"

Jeremie thought this over.

"We don't know what's down there." He said shaking his head. "You said something forced its way into the school from down there. Did you find out what it was?"

"It-it was…" Ulrich remembered the bladed horror from the boiler room. "It was something new. It had blades on its hands and climbed all over the ceiling. I shot it with the gun but it didn't die. I… I don't know where it is now…"

The wind picked up and carried with it the scent of rotted flesh. Ulrich shuddered from the cold and the knowledge that thing was still out there.

"Can we get going please?" Odd said nervously.

"I am not leaving until we check out the factory. If you guys want out then I'll go alone!" Ulrich said angrily.

"You won't be alone." William said. "I'm coming with you."

"Me too." Yumi said. "It may not bring the dead back but maybe my parents can be saved. They weren't… like that. They were sick. Just sick."

"What we're talking about doing, we'll be one our own. The others are going to be leaving and if we aren't on that bus…" Jeremie said.

"We've always been on our own. We know what's at stake and what we'll lose if we fail. Nothing's changed Jeremie." Ulrich said.

Jeremie nodded solemnly at Ulrich

"So what do we do?" William asked. "We can't exactly tell them what we're up to."

"We don't tell them anything." Ulrich said. "We just leave. They go for the bus we go for the boiler room. Get to the sewers and then make for the factory. It's not like we owe them an explanation."

"So then we just up and leave?" Yumi asked. "Ulrich you saved most of those people's lives. You can't just abandon them like that it's cruel!"

"We'll get there as far as the bus but then they're on their own." Ulrich said.

The door behind them opened and Tina stuck her head out.

"Guys." She said. "Darren wasn't fucking kidding. We are leaving now!"

The door slammed shut.

Ulrich turned to his friends and sighed.

"Let's get moving." He said.

They quickly followed Tina down the steps and out into the hallway. Everyone had left the lounge and they were waiting in the hallway armed with the few weapons they had. Darren and Chris were checking their guns and they each had a heavy duffle bag slung over their shoulder.

"Ready?" Darren asked tucking his Glock away.

"Yeah." Ulrich said.

"Let's get the fuck outta here bitches." Chris said.

With that send-off they made their way to the ground floor. When they reached the exit that led outside Darren and Chris took positions by the doors.

"On three." Ulrich said readying his machete.

"Three." Darren and Chris said together.

They pushed open the doors and Ulrich and Terry jumped outside. A walker growled at them and Terry impaled it through the eye with his sword. He kicked it away and twirled the sword as Ulrich buried his machete into the other walker's skull. He pulled the blade out and the zombie dropped to the ground.

"Clear!" Ulrich said.

"Not quite." Sam said stringing an arrow.

She let the arrow go and sent it through the heart of a sprinter that had started to rush towards the group. It fell to its knees and rolled across the ground. Terry sliced the zombie's head off with an elaborate slash of his sword and tugged the arrow out of the zombie's chest. He spun the arrow in his fingers and handed it back to Sam.

"Here you go." He said casually.

Sam rolled her eyes and took the arrow. Terry strutted away spinning his sword around and Ulrich called back to him "Don't wander off from the rest of the group!"

"Come on!" Terry said with a laugh. "These things are slow-"

She cut a zombie's leg off at the knee and it fell to the ground before properly recognizing Terry's presence.

"Stupid-"

He cut off another zombies arm.

"And weak as hell!"

He cut off another zombie's head.

"Come on slowpokes!" He called back.

"That mother fucking piece of fucking shit if going to get us all fucking killed!" Chris growled.

They quickly followed Terry around the corner of the building but stopped in their tracks. They could hear bad rap music. It was playing out of a boom box on the back of a pick-up truck. Sitting in the back of the bed of the truck were four burners. Next to the pick-up truck was a delivery van with "Pussy Wagon" spray painted on the side of it in red paint. Dancing on top of the delivery van was a half-naked woman with a bottle of cheap booze in one hand and a glass pipe in the other.

"Looks like a party." Terry said. "How come we weren't invited?"

"Classy." Desmond said with his tongue poking a hole in his cheek.

"You guys want to go?!" Terry called out marching towards the burners.

"Terry you dumb son of a bitch." Chris said in disbelief.

"Terry stop!" Ulrich said. "Don't-"

Terry ignored his classmate and stopped about fifteen feet from the vehicles. He held his sword in front of him and began twirling his sword around his body. The burners stared at the child in bewilderment. Suddenly a horrible realization struck Ulrich. Terry was good with swords in the sense that he knew all of the choreography that martial artist in the movies knew which in a real fight was next to useless. It looked fancy if not a little flamboyant but on the battle field that meant absolutely nothing.

"Okay you fucking crack heads!" Terry said pointing to them. "Imma take you out, Imma take you out, Imma take you out, Imma take you out-"

A few more burners stuck their heads out of the delivery van.

"Imma take ya'll out." Terry said pointing to them. "Imma-"

A burner reached behind him and pulled out a large revolver.

"I-Imma-"

The burner pulled the trigger and a bullet blew out the back of Terry's head.

"No! Oh god!" Emilie screamed in horror and the burners just laughed as Terry fell to the ground.

The burner with the gun fired two more shots into Terry's body as the others laughed. He blew on the barrel of his pistol and spun it around his finger before sliding it down his leg, pantomiming a holster.

"Oh look more kiddies!" A burner said standing up in the back of the truck.

"Oh I like me a red head!" Another burner said getting out of the truck and licking his lips at Tania.

"Let's get'em!" Another yelled brandishing a machine pistol.

"Bleachers!" Darren yelled.

The group ran as the burners opened fire on them. They ran under the metal bleachers by the soccer field and Chris yelled for everyone to keep their heads down.

"What do we do now?" Milly and Tamia wailed.

"I said keep your goddamn head down! Do you wanna die?" Chris roared. "Stay low and be ready to return fire on my mark!"

"Negative Bravo 2." Darren said.

"What?!" Chris cried as a bullet ricocheted over his head.

"I said belay that Bravo 2!" Darren yelled back.

"Come on you mother fucker don't give'em any special treatment." Darren said under his breath.

Everyone stayed down on the ground until the gunfire finally ended.

"You guys dead yet? Huh?!" A burner yelled.

"Fucking pussies! Hiding like a bunch of little bi-"

There was a thundering roar and Darren smiled to himself.

"Soup's on." Chris said sharing the grin.

Jim burst through the trees and charged at the burners roaring like a rampaging rhinoceros.

"FUCK!" A burner screamed.

Ulrich looked up through a divide in the bleachers just as Jim rammed into the pick-up truck. The burners screamed and jumped off of the truck as it flipped over onto its side. A burner rolled over in the grass and tried to shield himself with his hands as Jim brought his foot down on the burner's skull. Jim then grabbed the burner gutter slut by her leg and pulled her off of the top of the van. She screamed and flailed and kicked as Jim slammed her into the overturned truck over and over again, spraying blood all over the other burners.

"You fucking piece of shit!" A burner cried slamming a magazine into his pistol.

He raised the gun and fired two shots into Jim's back. Jim growled, turned around and batted the burner away with the back of his hand sending the delinquent flying through the air. The burner slammed into the class room building and slid down the brick wall and landed behind the bleachers with a wet squelch.

"Jesus fucking Christ!" Tina gasped.

"Fuck this shit yo!" A burner yelled jumping into the back of the van as it peeled away.

Jim dropped the mangled hunk of flesh that was once a "woman" and chased after the van as it drove away from the soccer field.

"Go now! Now!" Darren said rising to his feet.

They ran out of the bleachers and made for the garage. They had gotten half way across the field before a horrifying and familiar shriek echoed through the air.

"Give us a fuckin' break!" Chris roared over the sound.

"Go go go!" Darren said readying his Glock. "Get to the garage!"

"This is going to suck!" Odd moaned raising his own pistol.

They ran across the field as those things broke out of the trees all around them. There were dozens of them, as if they all knew to convene at this location. Ulrich drew his revolver and scooped up his sword as he ran past Terry's corpse.

"Sorry man." He said breathlessly.

Up ahead several of the undead burst through the trees behind and around the garage.

"Light'em up!" Darren yelled.

They opened fire. A shambler took a blast of buckshot in the shoulder and stumbled backwards before William fired his second barrel into its forehead. Odd fired a round into a sprinter's throat and dropped it to the ground. He fired another shot at a shambler but missed the sweet spot, only managing to graze its shoulder. He cursed and fired again this time imagining the eye of Xana on its forehead, like on Lyoko. The bullet entered its eye socket and exited out the back, striking another shambler behind it in the chin.

"Ha! Nice." He said.

Ulrich lined up a shot and fired a round into a zombie's forehead just above its right eyebrow. Another round went into a zombie's nose and a third went into a zombie's cheek. Darren and Chris took careful, well aimed shots and brought down an infected with every pull of the trigger. Milly and Tamia screamed and covered their ears, sobbing as the air around them filled with the sounds of moans, shrieks, and gunshots. Tania ran the tip of her spear into a zombie's eye socket and pushed it her weight into it to knock it to the ground. Thomas decapitated a shambler with his axe and Desmond cleaved another zombie's head in half. Yumi eviscerated a sprinter with her sword and cut the top of its head off with a powerful swipe of her katana. Sam was careful with her arrows, or rather arrow. She waited until a walker got close enough to her before firing her arrow and then snatching it back out of the zombie's head as it fell to the ground.

The survivors were killing but they kept coming. For every single kill they got another would just take its place. Disturbed, Ulrich was reminded of the story of the Hydra. For each head Hercules cut from its body, two more would grow in its place. The zombies were proving to be just as persistent. Crawling from the darkness like it was the mouth of hell, their numbers infinite and their vigor untiring. Ulrich frantically tried to remember how the battle between Hercules and the Hydra ended. He immediately thought of the Disney cartoon. Hercules got swallowed didn't he? Yes, the monster gobbled him up and Hercules cut his way out with his sword. But you won't get to do that Ulrich. Nope. We'll eat you up piece by piece, mouthful by mouthful until there's nothing left. We'll eat momma and poppa and all of your friends and then you'll be inside us forever. Hundreds of heads and hundreds of eyes. No focus! How did the story go? Hercules cut off their heads and to keep them from growing back he used-

"Fire!" Ulrich said. "Flares! They're afraid of fire!"

Darren and Chris heard him and Chris pulled two flares from his pocket. Chris threw one to Darren and both boys lit the flares. The effect was almost instant. They survivors were bathed in the harsh red light of the flares and the infected snarled and stumbled away from them as if they were emanating the very light of god.

"Move! We only have a few minutes!" Darren yelled.

Chris and Darren brandished their flares in front of them and kept the undead at bay as Desmond pulled open the garage door.

"Four minutes!" Darren yelled waving his flare in front of him.

A sprinter snarled angrily and stepped away from Darren.

"Everyone in the bus now!" Ulrich said. "Go!"

"How many of these do you have left?" Darren asked Chris.

"Just one." Chris replied.

"Ammo?" Darren asked.

"Pistols empty." Chris said. "Two shells in the shoty. You?"

"Two in the mag, one in the pipe." Darren said.

"Everyone's on the bus!" Aelita yelled as the engine roared to life.

"You go! I'll cover you!" Darren said.

Chris lowered his flare to the ground, keeping his sawed off shotgun trained on a sprinter that looked like it was almost over its fear of fire.

"Yo! Come the fuck on!" Chris said to Ulrich as he stepped by him and onto the bus. "What the fuck are you guys doing?"

"We aren't going." Ulrich said.

"What?!" Milly cried. "Ulrich no!"

"Come with us!" Tamia pleaded.

"We can't girls there's something we have to do." Yumi said.

"Please don't leave us!" Milly wailed reaching though the window of the bus and grabbing Aelita's hand.

"Milly!" Aelita said feeling her heart break.

"One minute!" Darren said seeing his flare start to sputter.

"Either shit or get off the pot!" Chris yelled.

"Come on!" Ulrich said.

"This bus isn't going to be waitin' for you guys on the corner Stern!" Darren yelled.

"We know what we're doing! We're staying here!" Ulrich said.

"Please no!" Milly sobbed. "Please please please!"

"Let go!" Aelita snapped jerking her hand away. She rubbed tears from her eyes and stepped away from the bus.

"You guys are crazy! We are leaving right now!" Herb yelled.

"Ulrich you can't go!" Sissi cried from inside the bus.

"We have to Sissi. I can't explain it right now but it's something we have to do!" Ulrich said.

"Ulrich!" She argued.

"Sissi do you trust me?" Ulrich asked.

"W-what?"

"I said do you trust me?! With every damned thing we have been through in the past day do you trust me?!" Ulrich asked.

"Y-yes. I do." Sissi said.

"Then shut the hell up and do as I say!" Ulrich said.

"Odd what the hell are you talking about?! Get on this fucking bus!" Sam said angrily.

"Can't do that right now baby." Odd said. "We'll meet up later but for now go with them where it's safe."

"Odd!"

"Take care of Kiwi and remember he only needs to eat twice a day and maybe a light snack if he's been exercising."

"Odd I swear to GOD I will throw this mutt to the zombies if you aren't on this bus in the next five seconds!" Sam said holding Kiwi by the back of his neck.

Kiwi whimpered.

"No you won't." Odd said simply. "You threaten to feed him to something all the time! That threat has lost all impact on me."

"God damn it people!" Chris said.

The zombies had gathered in front of the garage and were standing shoulder to shoulder, patiently waiting for the light to go out. Chris spotted something on a shelf and quickly jumped out of the bus. He grabbed a container off of the floor, opened it and began shaking it at the zombies, coating them all in a layer of-

"OIL!" Chris shouted.

Darren tossed his flare and it hit a zombie in the chest just as it flickered out. The zombie burst into flames and shrieked loudly as the fire spread to its undead kin.

"Good luck." Darren said stepping into the school bus.

The doors closed and Desmond floored the accelerator. The bus mowed through the cluster of flaming zombies and sped away, leaving the Lyoko warriors alone in the garage.

AN: I am so sorry that this chapter took so long to be put up but I honestly had no real idea where I was going. I was stuck on this one thought for so long before I decided to take the story in another direction and blah blah blah excuses, shut up and start on the next chapter you fat bastard, etc etc. I want to say the next chapter won't take as long but I don't honestly know. I want to participate in the NNWM thing so this story might get another chapter or two before going on hiatus again in November. Anyway I hope this chapter made up for the long wait. Don't forget to leave a review, that's what keeps me from losing interest.