by Cody Hyde
Come on, Sheila, you’re our only hope out of this place, thought Charlie as he sat in the same cell he sat in when he met Rocky two days earlier, this time with Ted by his side.
The monsters in the cells gave him and Ted creepy stares. The gargoyle let out its shriek again.
“Come on, Sheila, we need you’re help,” prayed Charlie quietly.
“Charlie, relax,” Ted told him. “You’ve already made it this far. Any minute now we will make it out of here and-”
“I’m tired of this!” yelled Charlie, cutting him off. “What makes you think I’m destined?! What makes you think I will be able to go home?!”
“Charlie-”
“No! I’m done! I don’t want to stay here any longer and I don’t want to die in this place!”
“Charlie!”
Charlie grasped a hold of the cell bars, breathing heavily.
“Please, my sister will be here any minute now, she always comes to me in the most troublesome of times.”
“At least you’ll be able to see your sister before you die, then,” said Charlie, thinking about his sister Tara back at home... and his mother... and Will. “I sure hope I see them again.”
“Ugh, I can’t believe Lauren’s messing around with that Will kid,” said Jill back at the party to her other blonde friend, who was staring out the kitchen window with her, hoping for Lauren to be back soon.
Will and Starr were nearing Lauren’s house, Will with the electric guitar and Starr still with the Book of the Underground.
“We have to warn them before it’s too late!” said Will as they stepped up to the front yard of Lauren’s house, where the people of East River High School were still all having a great time partying.
“Where’s Lauren?” questioned Jill from the window. Her blonde friend then noticed something from the distance....
“What is that?!” cried Jill.
The creature glided towards the house. Everyone partying outside stopped to stare at it, ducking out of the way.
“WHOA!”
“Did you see that?!”
“What the --”
Will and Starr then entered the house, unaware that the group outside had all caught a glimpse of the creature.
“Listen up everyone!” ordered Will. “We’re all in danger!”
“Everyone needs to leave the house now!” announced Starr.
“Party’s over!”
“There’s a group of zombies out there and we’re all going to become their dinner if we don’t leave the house right now!”
The music died. Everything was silent. Everyone paused for a moment... then burst out laughing.
“That was a good one!” commented a random guy.
“Yeah, Return of the Living Dead, right?” said another.
Everyone laughed again.
Will and Starr kept serious.
“You are joking, right?” questioned a third person.
“Where’s Lauren?” Jill cut in.
“Oh, she uh... just uh... well...” Will began.
“She’s not feeling too well,” Starr lied. “She’s still in the car.”
“Really?” responded Jill in disbelief. “Now what was that thing outside?!”
Will told her the honest truth. “That was Lauren.”
One guy got the sudden urge to beat the crap out of Will for ruining the party.’
“Hey man, nobody likes you,” the guy told him, getting up in his face.
Will grabbed the guy by his shirt collar, picked him up off the ground, and threw him at the wall, shattering all of the liquor bottles. It was incredible.
“How did you do that?” asked the stoner dude from earlier, who was sitting in the staircase.
Everyone else just stared quietly in confusion.
Without warning, a crash was heard from the living room window, and the room was instantly filled with screams... Lauren had just crashed her own party!
She let out a long screech, as if she was claiming her territory.
The flying hellion Lauren has become then attacked her best friend Jill. She grabbed her by her throat as she screamed, bit her as if she was a vampire, and then threw her onto the living room couch.
Everyone else took off running. A couple of guys stood there frantically bagging the rest of the unbroken alcohol bottles.
“We need to get to the car!” ordered Will out loud to Starr, as Lauren was now attacking the two guys bagging the alcohol.
Will made his way out the front door, followed by Starr, pushing past the group of teenagers in the way.
Just then a loud scream was heard from outside. “ZOMBIES!”
The undead had arrived.
Marching down the street was the army of undead, Joe James leading them. There were at least a hundred or more, their evil red eyes and little red horns risen up from their skulls.
They weren’t really zombies. If anything they were more like demons but with pale skin, thick dark veins, and slit-like eyes. Everyone at the party stared in shock. They were outnumbered.
Joe then ordered his army to seize. “Stop,” he ordered.
Everything went silent for a moment.
“They will become one of us... now, begin.”
The undead army then picked up speed and came charging and leaping down the street towards the group of teenagers.
Everyone began racing to get to their vehicles, some tripping, some too drunk to walk or stand up, some passed out on the lawn. The undead eventually had gotten close enough and began to attack their first victims...
The first one to attack grasped a hold of a guy in a blue T-shirt. A black smoky substance seemed to exit the monster’s mouth, and spread over the man’s face, entering through his mouth and nostrils. The victim then appeared to change into one of them, first falling to his knees then getting back up to join the undead, a bit confused at first.
It was almost like a virus, but instead they place part of their soul in every victim they attack, changing them into one of them.
“You ready to kick some butt?” suggested Will to Starr.
“Let’s do it.”
With that being said, Will and Starr began to fight the undead.
With the electric guitar still in Will’s hand, he took his first swing at one of the undead, sending it flying.
Starr then swung a leg out at one of them, then turned around to punch one straight in the face.
The Power of Victor was still with them.
Will threw another swing at one of the creatures with the electric guitar, slicing it in half. Its body then seemed to disintegrate.
What appeared to be black ash quickly swept away from its body until it was nothing, and the guitar still kept intact after the blow. The power wasn’t only with Will, but now with the guitar.
Starr kicked another, lifting the undead creature off the ground with her foot and bringing him back down karate-style. She then threw a quick punch at another, and elbowed one from behind.
The undead continued to attack their victims.
One girl was being held up against a fence screaming. “No!” the girl screamed. “Get off me!!”
The creature then started to turn her into one of them. The black smoky substance exited its mouth and entered through the girl’s nostrils.
She passed out for a second, then opened her eyes to reveal red slit- like pupils.
The undead let go of her and she fell to her knees.
Screeching demonically, little horns then
began growing up out of her skull, and her face turned pale, veins showing. She stood back up and ripped her clothes off, her body now a different species.
Her boyfriend arrived to her assistance with a baseball ba
t, knocking out a couple of the creatures before he met up with her, but he was too late...
“Stacy?” he questioned in shock.
The girl named Stacy then attacked her boyfriend.
He dropped the baseball bat, and the smoky black substance swept over him as he fell to his knees.
Will and Starr continued to fight.
Will was slicing and dicing the undead with the V- shaped electric guitar, stabbing one of them straight through the heart with one of the ends of the V.
The body looked down at the hole in its chest in pain... then slowly disintegrated to nothing.
Starr continued to fight karate-style.
It was almost a close call when Starr quickly turned around to one of the creatures right behind her. She swiftly stepped back away from the undead monster, then realizing she could step back quite a good distance from them with the power that was provided to her.
She leaped back about twenty feet away from the creature, catching her balance with her right hand out in front of her, landing at a low stance almost similar to Charlie’s.
She nailed it, though. “Whoa,” she said aloud.
Will watched the whole thing. He was impressed. “Can I do that?”
A few more undead then began to surround Starr. Despite her incredible throwback, she landed in the wrong spot.
The undead hissed demonically at her.
She turned around swiftly, tripped one, punched another in the face, and then while making a 360 degree turn she upper-kicked the last one, knocking him square out in his jaw.
Will began running towards a large amount of the creatures, and with a giant powerful leap, the black V- shaped guitar raised up over him, he came crashing down right in the middle of the group, slamming one end of the V straight into one’s head. He then swiftly pulled it out and sliced another one’s head completely off. The body then disintegrated to nothing.
Starr continued to throw kicks at the undead.
A helpless teenager was crawling away from them, and before being attacked, Will swung the guitar at the creature, throwing it off of the victim and knocking out a couple more. He had just saved a guy’s life.
An angry “NOOO!!” was then heard, and after a few more kicking and swinging at the undead, Will and Starr turned over to look. Evil Joe was coming straight at them, looking angrier than ever.
Starr threw a final swing at another creature then took off running towards Joe. She leaped up into the air and landed in front of him, face to face. She threw a kick at him, but Joe caught her foot and flipped her onto her stomach.
She stared up from the ground into his evil eyes, his horns risen from his head. “Will!” she cried.
Will looked over to see her on the ground, Joe ready to attack her. “Starr!” he cried back.
Just then a loud screeching noise was heard from the sky.
Without warning, Lauren flew straight down at Joe, sinking her claws straight down into his face.
“AHH!!” he yelled angrily.
Now was the chance to run.
“Come on, we need to get out of here!” ordered Will, who came running towards Starr, reaching out his hand to pull her off the ground.
Starr got back on her feet and followed Will, who was running towards what appeared to be Greg’s Camaro, still parked alongside of Lauren’s house.
The monstrous Lauren continued to keep her claws sunk into Joe’s face.
Joe struggled to pull her off of him, and eventually the creature took off into the sky again, her legs now bleeding.
Evil Joe was left with a scarred face. He grew a sinister grin.
“Come on!” ordered Will again as Starr threw another punch at one of the zombie-like creatures while almost being attacked by another, Will swinging at the other with the electric guitar.
They were finally at Greg’s car.
“Get in!” ordered Will. He quickly got in, throwing the guitar in the back seat, and Starr got in on the passenger side.
Will felt a powerful connection with the car as well once he started it. The heavy rock music was also back.
“Pound it,” he said to Starr, and she pounded his fist.
Starr turned up the music louder.
There were about a dozen of the undead on the street right in front of them.
Will backed out of the parking space until the car was centered with the group and toyed with the gas pedal.
Starr gave him a sexy look.
Will then hit the gas pedal, picked up speed, and soon he was making his way with the car straight through the group of them.
It was like knocking zombies out like bowling pins! At an amazing speed, too, the heavy music in symphony with every hit!
At the end of the road Will drifted the car to a stop to look back at all of the dead. Tire marks were left on the street.
“I’ve always wanted to do that,” said Will. He then looked over at Starr, who reached over and kissed him.
“Alright, let’s get outta here,” she said.
Will turned the car around, stepped on the gas pedal again, and took off down the streets of East River, leaving a few more tire marks behind.
Chapter 25