Zombies-A Happy Pet Chat story.

[Waffle King Richard]

This is a story I'm currently doing on the Happy Pet Chat thread in Friends Chat here on Gaia.

Prologue

Autumn. A season of beauty and cheer, as many go about preparing for the long winter ahead, whilst admiring the trees and their rich colors. Winters in Central Michigan are particularly harsh, especially whenever a blizzard takes out the highway, causing motorists to question where the edge of the road ends, and fields begin. But I digress. This story takes place in autumn, and not the middle of winter.

It’s the story of a group of people whose lives seemed somewhat ordinary, but in fact, for most of them, their lives were about to become anything but ordinary. As we begin our story, picture in your mind’s eye a small town surrounded by fields, where there isn’t that much to do for young adults, except for hanging around the corner coffee shop where one of them worked.. They often did this, unsure of what they might plan to do on any given day.

As the coffee shop opened its doors for another seemingly normal day of business, Pink Panda Passion began reading the local paper, taking note of an article regarding a nearby cemetery which had been founded over 150 years earlier, and the rich history it held. “Weird! I didn’t know Dartmoor Cemetery housed so many graves of Natives from long ago. I always thought they were buried in Native Burial Grounds, most of which are under our houses.”

Then, just as clockwork, in came almost all of her friends at once. The only one not present was CaptRichard, who was busy finishing a practical for his Commercial Multi-Engine Pilot License. Her boyfriend Stein led the pack and smiled as he leaned over the counter to kiss her before taking a red rose he’d bought, and slid it in her hair by her left ear. “Hi.” Stein was somewhat flustered as he said this, not because he wasn’t used to being Panda’s boyfriend, but because everything about her always caused his heart to sing in gratitude over having her in his life.

“Knock it off!” MHHornfreak interrupted with a mischievous grin on his face. “We all know you’d rather be with Panda than anyone else, but you don’t have to try and swoon her every time you see her, at work or elsewhere.”

Panda seemed to ignore Horn’s comment, getting a cup of crushed ice and a cup of roast iced coffee, of which she handed mocha kitty the ice and Djinii the coffee. “Would you both be so kind?” They both looked at each other before giving a nod of understanding to Panda. So with Horn facing the other way, mocha kitty quietly crept up behind him and after a mental count to three, she proceeded to tug on the back of his shirt collar, and pour the crushed ice down, before giving Horn a hug.

Hornfreak howled as the small fragments of frozen water slid down his back, some of which went into his boxers before starting to slowly melt. A moment later, mocha kitty let go as Djinii began pouring the coffee down the back of Horn’s shirt, which resulted in more yelps from him as he ran for the restroom with a huge wet backside visible to everyone. Panda smiled and mouthed “Thank You” to both of her accomplices.

“Okay, so now that Horn is out of the room for a little while, what do you all want to do tonight?” Stein asked. “After all, it’s Halloween and I don’t want to just sit around doing nothing.”

At that moment, Panda got an idea. “Well, we could go visit Dartmoor Cemetery and spend some time up there. Since it’s over 90 acres, we could go explore the area.” Her suggestion fell upon a quiet group, who all apparently were mentally pondering the recommendation. She then handed the news article she’d been reading to mocha kitty. “It’s even reputed to be haunted by the ghosts of those who’ve perished, which is a nice ambience for Halloween.”

“It seems like it could be a lot of fun” added mocha kitty.

“Are you kidding?!” Djinii replied. “There’s no way I’m spending time in a graveyard at night. Especially on this night of the year!” It wasn’t that Djinii was scared, just that it would be disrespectful to those who rest there.

“Scared Djinii?” mocha kitty asked. She knew how to push Djinii's buttons.

Djinii shot back with an icy reply. “No! I just don’t think it’s right for us to do this! And I for one wish to respect the dead and let those who are in their final resting place, continue to be at rest! Ghosts, or no ghosts!”

“Alright, we’ll decide this by democratic vote!” Tamako suggested. “All those in favor, say Aye!”

“AYE!” came everyone save Djinii.

“And against?” Tamako added.

Djinii just gave a shake of the head in disbelief, refusing to even vote.

“All right, fine! But if anything happens, I’m blaming you mocha kitty!” Djinii said, resigning to the fate that seemingly had been thrown upon the group.

“GREAT!” Panda exclaimed. “Then we’ll all meet up at the entrance to the cemetery around 9 o’clock tonight! Until then, I suggest you all get planning and get some sleep.” She paused for a moment to hand Stein his drink. “I have a feeling we’re going to have one heck of a fun time tonight!”

At that moment, Horn came back out from the restroom. “Hey Horn! Good news buddy!” Stein announced. “We’re going to be at the Dartmoor Cemetery tonight to see if we can find some ghosts of those who reside in that old place!”

Horn looked at Stein like he was nuts. “You can’t be serious! There’s no such thing as ghosts!”

“Well then, there’s no harm in going to find out, is there?”

Little did anyone in the group know, but what they would discover would make an encounter or two with ghosts seem like child’s play. And it would make them wish they had seen ghosts at the cemetery.

End of Prologue...  

[Waffle King Richard]

Chapter One

Capt Richard had completed his flight and was waiting on the paperwork to be completed by the FAA when his cell phone signaled that there was a new voicemail for him. Dialing into his voicemail, he was surprised to find that it was from Ebony Angel, who was another member of the group.

“Hey Richard, it’s Ebony Angel. Just wanted to say that I hope your flight this morning went well and that we now have a pilot amongst our ranks who can take everyone to different places.” Richard gave a light chuckle and shook his head with a smile on his face whilst rolling his eyes. “Anyway, I wanted to let you know that we have arranged to all spend the night starting at 9 o’clock this evening, over at the old Dartmoor Cemetery in order to hunt out possible ghosts which are said to possibly lurk there. I was wondering if you’d like to join us over there. If you can make it, let me know. No worries though if you can’t. Again, hope it all went well this morning and look forward to hearing how it went! Bye for now!”

Richard shrugged his shoulders as he hung up. “Who knows? It could be fun! And it could serve as a celebration of sorts for me for getting my training finally done.” With that, he called Ebony Angel back, and left a message on her cell to inform her that he had passed the examination and that he’d be interested in meeting up with everyone that night at the cemetery.

At about 8:30, Ebony Angel and Tamako showed up at the entrance to the cemetery. It’s wrought iron gate standing ominously before the two of them.

“Damn! I didn’t think it would be this creepy looking!” Tamako mentioned, noticing a fog was beginning to settle in over the cemetery. “Ooh! There’s a bad omen.”

Within the next few minutes everyone else arrived, to which Richard’s arrival heralded cheers and a round of applause from everyone for having passed his FAA examination that morning.

“Thanks, though that is of course a thank you back to each of you for being the outstanding and supportive friends that you are.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere Richard!” Horn teased before walking up to the gate. “Wow! That fog in there seems to be rolling towards us, and appears somewhat thick.”

Capt Richard looked towards the ominous fog with a quizzed look on his face. “That’s strange. The conditions around here tonight aren’t right for creating any type of fog.” Something else seemed to be troubling him as well. The way the fog traveled would require a breeze be blowing at them, and yet the night air was completely calm.

“Well, here goes nothing!” With that said, Stein began to push the gate open, creating a loud creaking sound as the gate advanced inward upon its rusty hinges until it had opened far enough for everyone to walk in. Once everyone was inside however, the gate seemingly closed shut on its own, at which time the fog reached the fence, yet it did not go past the fence line.

“Well, where should we go first?” Horn asked. He could see everyone else somewhat, but it was hard with the fog the way it was.

“Let’s split up into groups and cover the four compass corners.” Djinii suggested, even though Djinii still had reservations about this entire event. “We’ll use the walkie talkies to keep in touch. Make sure you’re all on Channel Nine.” With that said, everyone checked and made sure their individual walkie talkies were on nine.

“I also suggest given this fog that we stay with the group at all times” Richard added, with a voice of caution. However, it seemed rather mute since just as he finished that statement, the fog suddenly lifted entirely.

“WHAT THE?!” Richard was now more confused than before. given there was no way a fog could just vanish like that; especially when there was no sun to burn it off.

This should have been a strong warning of bad news to everyone in the group, however they didn’t seem to be overly concerned, save for just surprise.

“Well, that helps” Horn commented.

Breaking up, it was decided that Panda and Stein would remain in their current location to the south. Tamako and Ebony Angel would head to the east. Horn and Djinii would go west, with Richard and Whispers of Oblivion heading all the way to the north.

Since Capt Richard, Whispers of Oblivion and Cool Starry Bra would have the farthest to travel, they headed out first, with the other groups leaving a few minutes later. As they walked, Cool Starry Bra and Oblivion asked Richard some questions about his flight from earlier that day, and how it felt to now be a pilot who could be paid for flying others.

“It feels nice, though a relief to have the training out of the way finally.” As they got to the half way point, he asked them what had happened between Horn, Djinni and mocha kitty, given how Horn had been glaring at them with cold eyes the entire time back at the entrance.

“Well, he was just doing his usual insanity routine to annoy Panda and so she handed mocha kitty a cup of crushed ice and Djinii a mode a cup of coffee and then hinted what to do with them.” Oblivion explained.

“So the two of them did what any civil individual would do, and dumped them down the back of Horn’s shirt.” Cool Starry Bra added on with a smile.

As they explained this to Richard, he thought he could hear something off in the distance. He stopped, and when Oblivion and Bra looked at him and were about to ask what was wrong, he raised his arm. “Shh!” They remained quiet for a few seconds, before hearing this moaning sound off before them, seemingly a fair ways off, but somehow sounding closer every moment.

Oblivion grabbed a walkie talkie and hailed everyone. “Hey, is anyone making a sound like moaning out loud right now?”

The response from Horn’s group summed it up. “No, why?”

“'Cause we’re hearing a moaning sound in front, which sounds like it’s coming closer.”

“Maybe it’s a ghost coming to haunt you” Horn replied, pretending to have a spooky voice.

“Horn, I’m going to kill you if you don’t shut up.” Oblivion had no idea what that noise was, but it still seemed somewhat louder now.

“What is that sound?” Bra asked.

Capt Richard looked ahead and squinted. He thought he could see something on the next hill moving. It seemed a little erratic in its movements. He motioned to Oblivion and Bra and pointed in the general location. There was a somewhat shallow valley between the two hills, and as Capt Richard took his torch light and shone the high powered beam in the direction of the shadow, they saw what appeared to be one person in shabby clothes slowly heading down. But that wasn’t all they saw.

As the person continued to stumble forward, more started to appear, and some seemed to rise out of the graves themselves in the distance.

“Holy…” Oblivion stood frozen in fear as the three of them watched this

With his free hand shaking wildly in fear, Richard brought his walkie talkie up to his mouth. “Uh guys! We found something.”

Panda took her own unit and replied in excitement. “GREAT! What did you find? A full torso apparition?”

Bra gulped before responding. “Um, no. We haven’t found any ghosts.”

The three of them were still paralyzed with fear, but had found themselves starting to slowly inch backwards, not daring to take their eyes off of what was happening in the distance.

“Well, what did you find then if it wasn’t a ghost?”

Before they could even answer that, Capt Richard yelled a single word to both Oblivion and Bra as he lowered his light.

“RUN!” He didn’t need to tell them twice.

Running back towards the entrance, Richard shouted his response for everyone. “RUN! GET BACK TO THE GATE NOW! WE’VE COME ACROSS ZOMBIES!!! THIS IS NO JOKE! IF YOU WANT TO LIVE, RUN FOR IT!” The three of them had to be careful of tombstones in the ground as they ran, but what annoyed them was when Horn tried to call their bluff.

“Yeah! Sure! And I’m Dr. Dre!”

“LISTEN! WE AREN’T JOKING!” Oblivion spoke in a fearful voice.

Suddenly, Tamako came on shouting that her team believed them, and informing everyone that they have just seen a few zombies come out of the ground where they were. To which Panda and Stein looked at each other in concern before seeing an arm shoot out before them from the ground. Panda let out a scream before Stein grabbed her and began running.

Within moments, everyone was safely back at the entrance, wherein Stein, Horn and Capt Richard began fighting to open the gate quickly, hearing the moans of zombies getting closer. Getting the door open, everyone went through before pulling the gate shut.

“We can’t stay here! As soon as they get past the fence, we’ll be sitting ducks if we stay here!” Richard explained.

“Where should we go?” Tamako asked, with tears of fright rolling down her cheeks.

“For now, let’s go to my house.” Capt Richard answered. “We can come up with a game plan and figure out what to do from there.”

Rushing into their vehicles, everyone began to drive off, but not before all seeing the zombies reach the gate, and proceeding to try and wrestle it open.

Racing through the streets, all the group were terrified as they made their way across town to Richard's house. The advantage they would have is that Richard lived on a Private island and that with the strong currents, the only way by land to the island was via a drawbridge. When they arrived at the bridge, Richard pulled to one side and opened the gate, before waving for everyone to go ahead of him. As they did, he re-entered at the rear of the group and after closing the gate and locking it, began to cross the bridge, eying the dark water beneath as he got halfway along. Reaching the far side, Richard then proceeded to raise the drawbridge, before driving up to the house.

Everyone for the most part was freaking out and letting their fear show. But then again, most people would if they were faced with the situation these people found themselves in.

“WHAT THE #$@# HAPPENED BACK THERE?!” mocha kitty asked in a loud and frightened voice. Richard waved his arms to get everyone’s attention.

“All right! It seems we have a situation on our hands to which no one could have foreseen. As far as we know, it seems zombies have risen from the cemetery, hard to believe though it may be.” He wiped his face with his hand and looked down at the beads of sweat covering it. “The question though, is what do we do going forward?” He glanced at Horn and Panda, both of whom had their heads down seemingly in thought.

“What can we do?” Tamako asked, wondering if anyone else in town was coming into the zombies as they spoke.

“Well, it’s said that killing a zombie is virtually impossible as they are just mindless corpses seeking to eat the brains of the living in order to relieve the pain they feel.” Richard’s statement hit a chord with several of them.

“Excuse me?! Pain?! What pain could they be possibly feeling since they’re already dead?!” Ebony Angel had remained quiet for the most part, but that got her vocal.

“The pain of being dead! Think about it. You’re a rotting corpse of bones and decaying flesh. Surely being animated as such would be painful as you feel your body rotting away.”

Panda raised her hand, not wanting to have such a picture in her mind. “But what can we do to stop them?”

“What if we cremate them?” mocha kitty asked. “If we burn their flesh, we could stop them moving as the bones seem to still require muscle tissue to move.”

Stein, being a skilled pyromaniac, smiled at that thought and began thinking about how he could construct a fire large, and hot enough to consume such a large number of corpses. “Great idea! I think I could come up with a potent fire to swallow them whole.”

Richard thought to himself for a moment about that. “It could work, provided they aren’t spreading out as they look for hosts to feast upon the brains of. Otherwise, we’d have a huge radius to cover and no way of controlling the fire.”

Stein looked at the regional map on the wall of Richard’s living room. “Do you have a ruler, a compass and a calculator I could borrow?”

“Yeah. They’re in my flight bag. One sec.” He headed over to the stairs to head up to his bedroom, but just as he got to the bottom, he paused. “I just had a thought.” With that, he turned the TV on and switched to remote camera view. The screen began to switch between 7 cameras which monitored the island, along with the bridge. The screens around the island showed nothing out of the ordinary. The same could not be said at the bridge.

Though the zombies had not reached the gate, everyone could see a flurry of activity on the streets beyond as zombies seemingly went house to house, to which everyone sighed and felt sadness for those within the houses. Richard however simply turned and rushed up to his room, getting the instruments Stein had asked for. Though he was equally as upset as everyone else, he knew they had to hurry, as that fence and the raised drawbridge would not buy them too much time.

Handing Stein the instruments he’d asked for, Richard saw his parents finally come downstairs. “What is going on? What was all that noise earlier?” his father asked as he saw everyone and noticed the look of dread and fear which shone in each of their eyes.

“Trust me dad. You two would not believe us even if you saw it with your own eyes.”

Horn walked over and ushered the two of them into the living room, before pointing at the screen. “See for yourselves, the zombies out front.” Everyone except Stein watched closely as the screen showed the carnage, in addition to the seemingly increasing numbers of zombies. “As one is attacked by a zombie, they become a zombie themselves. Wanting to ease their own pain in death.”

“Seriously Horn! Shut up!” Stein said, not wanting to have to think about such things.

“OOO! It looks like they’re at the fence!” Djinii called out. Indeed, they were at the fence, and had begun trying to shake it, only to be sent staggering backwards with a flash of light.

“What just happened?!” Tamako asked, in partial disbelief.

“The fence has an electric trigger on it. If you don’t open it the right way, as per the sign on the fence, you’ll get a nasty shock.” Richard’s father replied, with a smirk on his face. He then turned to his wife. “See? I told you that would come in handy!” Richard simply rolled his eyes, wondering if by any chance, he were adopted, and not the biological son of these two oddballs.

The Zombies were of course continuing to try and get past the fence, but so far, the fence was seemingly holding its own against the would be attackers. Though it was only a matter of time before Richard’s father knew they would succeed at breaking through the fence, as the electric system is only running off a regular car battery, which at this rate would weaken soon.

“We’ll have to hurry it up somewhat!” Richard’s father pointed out in a somewhat hurried voice. “It seems the battery which is powering the electrical side of the fence is starting to loose power from all this activity on it!”

Whilst they all watched, Bra suddenly exclaimed “It’s got to be the Reese’s!”

As if all were following the cue from and unseen director, everyone, including Stein, paused, and then glanced at Bra in confusion. A chorus of “HUH?!” followed.

“It’s got to be the Reese’s!” Bra was making no sense, to which everyone wondered if Bra was still sane. “I’m telling you. See, Tamako and I were over at her house this afternoon and she told me that I could have ‘Some’ of the Reese’s which were left out for trick-or-treaters!”

Tamako wondered what brought all this up all of a sudden as she looked at Bra in disbelief. “Bra, what are you trying to say?”

“Don’t you get it?!” Bra started using hand gestures to emphasize. “Look, my point is that you can’t just have ‘Some’ of the Reese’s! You’ve got to have ‘All’ of the Reese’s! It’s because I didn’t have all of the Reese’s at your house this afternoon that we got attacked by those zombies!”

“Well, we weren’t actually attacked so much as felt threatened by the zombies as they chased us.” Richard was quick to point out. “So what do you think would help solve that issue Bra?”

“That’s easy! I eat all the Reese’s that are here, and that will cause the zombies to disappear! It’s completely logical!”

“GREAT! Now Bra’s becoming like Horn and both are loosing their minds!” Stein threw his arms in the air, as if questioning why he was stuck with the weirdos on tonight of all nights.

“I resent that!” Horn responded with great seriousness in his tone of voice. He walked up to Bra before grabbing Bra’s shirt and shaking the lapels.

“You can’t be insane Bra! Only I am allowed to be insane in this group! If you don’t stop being insane this moment, I’ll have no choice but to sue you for trademark infringement as well as boot you out as there isn’t enough room in this town for another Horn!”

mocha kitty quickly bopped Horn on the head. “Do you mind?! We don't have time for this!” She then got an evil glint in her eye and a troublemaker’s grin on her face, before she proceeded to shake Bra even more madly. “WAKE UP BRA! STOP THIS MADNESS AND JUST COME AWAY FROM THE INSANE WORLD OF HORN! COME JOIN US HERE IN THE SANE WORLD!”  

[Waffle King Richard]

Chapter Two

After the whole Bra incident calmed down again, everyone resumed watching the TV as Stein went back to plotting his ultimate crematorium fire for all those zombies in town. Ebony Angel walked over to check on Stein and noticed something rather odd as she looked at the map. “Hey Richard? What direction does the river flow?” she asked.

“Hmm. It flows north of here to the old mill, and then it forks to head north and east. Why?”

“Well, according to the map Stein has here, there seems to be an underground line from the mill which runs directly under Dartmoor Cemetery, and goes off somewhere.” She traced her finger as Stein watched, having paused again when she heard Tamako’s comment.

Capt Richard’s father looked to Tamako in surprise. “It’s not an underground line. It’s a cavern which the town back in the 30’s decided to build the mill upon. It served until the early 80’s as a dumping ground for not only the industrial waste for the mill, but also as the town’s dump. The practice was stopped however when the EPA tightened its regulations against such dumping.”

Richard thought about what his father had just said whilst everyone else seemed frustrated with the town for having been so lazy and cheap with disposal of such things.

“I guess we should just leave the town to its own demise then. They pretty much had this coming.” Horn said with disappointment in his voice. “After all, they are reaping what they appear to have sowed.”

“Horn, shut up right now, or so help me… I’ll throw you to the zombies as an offering!” Stein was at his limit.

Something his dad had said however was bothering Capt Richard. After all, with that fog they’d seen in the cemetery coupled with the zombies and now the revelation about toxic and regular waste having been dumped under the cemetery for so long, something seemed to be nagging at him.

“EUREKA!” Stein exclaimed as he put the pencil back down. “I think I have it all planned out!” He held out the map for everyone to follow along. “If we can get all the zombies into this field, we can start with a ring of fire that will have to be only partly sealed before we lure the zombies in. Gasoline should work if we soak enough around in a circle with a gap at the southern end where we’ll lead them in. Using a captain’s wheel like design, as the flames hit certain points around the rim, they will flow inward to a second ring which will be made up of slower burning hay doused in lighter fluid. Again, once the fire reaches key points, it will go to the center where we’ll have a partly dug pit filled with accelerants to create a giant fireball. At the same time, we’ll use fireworks strategically placed along the outside to keep them at bay in the ring. To finish off, I’ll make some homemade flame throwers for responsible individuals to operate.”

“Sorry Horn! That excludes you!” Djinni mentioned to a round of chuckles. Horn simply scoffed and stuck his tongue out at her.

“The flamethrowers will act as a secondary back up to help burn the zombies down to just mere bone fragments. The catch is; I’m going to need to get supplies from in town to build each of them, as well as fireworks and a very large supply of gasoline.”

Glancing at the TV again, Ebony Angel said rather calmly “Will a gas delivery truck do?” Everyone watched as the truck pulled up at the station about a quarter mile from the fence camera, and sighed as the driver was attacked as he exited his cab. “May he rest in peace and not turn into one of them!”

“Alright then! One team will go with Stein to collect the supplies, and Horn, you get to be the driver of that gasoline truck.” Richard patted Horn’s shoulder as he said this. “Another team will make their way to the field to ensure the coast there is clear, and begin preparing for the inferno. Decide amongst yourselves as to what each of you will be doing. I have something else to deal with.”

“What about you Richard?” Panda asked.

“I’m going to the old mill to head down into that cavern and see just what is going on down there. If I’m right, we may need to do something with the dumping grounds as well, or else this might end up being just an appetizer of what is to come.”

“YOU CAN’T RICHARD! YOU’D BE KILLED!” Djinii didn’t like the idea of a good friend dying a senseless death.

“Perhaps, but if I die, then it was meant to be. However if any of you were to die, it would be a great injustice to this world.”

“Why would you place your life as having no value compared with the lives of your friends Richard?” Panda was hurt, and willing to punch him if he said anything which would sound like him not wanting to live anymore.

“The reason being that you all are young and have your whole lives ahead of you. Besides, I can’t stop feeling that there’s something only I can do in that cavern. As if something is there which is calling for me.”

Panda, Stein and alphacadet all walked up to Richard, and each slapped him one at a time.

“IDIOT!” alphacadet shouted. “You still have your life ahead of you as well! So what if we’re all a little younger than you?! That doesn’t change the fact that you’re a great friend and an invaluable person in all our lives! Why can’t you just admit the truth for once and ask us to help you, instead of burying your head in the sand and trying to avoid problems when they happen? We all know you are not the best at some things, but that doesn’t mean you’re terrible at everything!”

“alphacadet’s right, Richard!” Stein added. “You always stand by us and support us, so there is no way we are going to sit back and watch you commit suicide like this. If you are going in there, we’re ALL going in there!”

“Yeah, that’s right” Stein said, before pausing. “Wait! What?! I don’t want to go down there! Who knows what is in that cavern!”

“One way to find out” Ebony Angel replied, agreeing with the others.

Richard simply stood there dumbfounded for a moment as to why his friends would want to do this for him. Panda however settled the issue by going into the kitchen and grabbing a frying pan, to which she then walked over to Richard and whacked him upside the head with it. “Wake up!” she said.

“I suppose we have no choice” Tamako added. Djinni nodded and looked over at the map again.

“I suggest we all head over to the cavern first and then once we’ve seen what is there, split up into two teams to initiate the plan. So let’s decide who is going to with Stein and Horn afterwards to get supplies, and who will be going to the field.” Djinni paused. “It’s all risky no matter which path is taken at this point. One the one hand, you can be attacked by zombies which getting supplies, but you could also be attacked by zombies whilst setting up in the field. It won’t be easy, but everyone is going to have a part to play.”

Taking a sideways glace at the screen once more, Horn’s eyes widened in fear. “OH s**t!” When everyone looked, they realized that it was now, or never. For there on the screen, they watched as a group of zombies had managed to drain the battery down enough to start climbing up the fence and try and get the fence open.

“We’ve got to hurry and not dawdle! We’ll decide the teams when we’re at the cavern! For now, let’s take only 5 SUVs and alphacadet’s Mini Cooper, which has great speed and cornering ability. Make sure your windows are all shut tight and doors locked! Leave the other vehicles behind! I’ll lead the pack as we reach the drawbridge. I’m going to cut the cord, get back in, and then we all start peeling rubber. Remember that they are all dead, so though you may see family or friends in the pack, don’t let your heart be swayed for now. There will be time for mourning later on. For now, our focus is getting to the cavern and then afterwards initiating the plan!” Richard’s father explained the initial plan before taking a deep breath. “And thank you everyone for being such good friends to our son!”

With a nod of understanding in unison, everyone rushed out with Stein bringing the map and such, before heading outside. Richard however paused and flagged everyone down.

“Wait! I have an idea!” Grabbing one of the large garden stones, he put it in the passenger seat of his truck. “I’ll lead in my truck, and let my truck act as the initial battering ram to break through the fence. Then we rush out behind it when the zombies are scrambling. And I’ll use this rag as a little bonus to ensure they don’t try to drive the truck to follow us.”

Unsure of what he was going to use the rag for, everyone nodded and got into the vehicles and followed Richard onto the bridge. After starting his truck, Richard pushed in the cigarette lighter in the truck, and slowly drove with the high beams on, until he reached the drawbridge. The zombies at this point had decided to just climb over the fence and were now slowly making their way towards the raised drawbridge from the other side. When the lighter coil popped out from the dash, Richard opened the gas cap and stuffed the rag in, before taking the lighter and setting it against the rag to set it alight. “Goodbye my friend.” After giving one final honk of his horn, he proceeded to cut the cord on the drawbridge.

The drawbridge cable, now cut, caused the bridge to come crashing down with a huge bang, to where he could see the zombies now headed straight for them. Taking the stone, he tossed it onto the accelerator pedal and watched his truck begin to accelerate forward, slowly picking up speed whilst he ran to alphacadet’s Mini which was next in line and hurriedly got into the passenger seat, locking the door and applying his seat belt whilst alphacadet gunned it. The pack then all moved forward, trying to ensure the zombies would not be able to regain their footing after being run over by the truck.

Moments later, the burning rag met the fumes from the gas tank and the truck became a huge exploding fireball as it crashed through the gate, and kept with momentum until it crashed into the pharmacy down the street. The troupe all sped out and turned sharply, making their way off into the darkness whilst the zombies attempted to regroup, before heading over and overthrowing Richard’s house, albeit an empty house now at that.

The six vehicles sped along, each using the walkie talkies from earlier to communicate, to which Stein could be heard complaining about how Richard had had fun already with that fire which he hadn’t been able to do. Within an hour, they had reached the entrance to the old mill, its outside façade somewhat ominous and foreboding in the dark.

Capt Richard took his walkie talkie and summed it up for everyone present. “Ladies and Gentlemen, we have reached our final destination! HELL!” He wasn’t far off with that description either. It looked like something a demon would use as its lair when attacking humans.  

[Waffle King Richard]

Chapter Three

Meanwhile in Detroit, another band of Richard’s friends were busy clearing out a path to escape from zombies which were attacking them at Michigan State University. One of them grabbed a shovel from a now dead landscaper and lobbed off the heads of 2 of the zombies who had broken through their line of defense.

“Dammit EvenButt! If you aren’t going to help fight, than do me a favor and don’t get in my way, Creeper!” Karma was at this point trying to remain semi-calm given the sheer horde of zombies which had been multiplying each time one went down. For it seemed like for each zombie they took out, 20 new ones showed up.

“I am NOT a creeper!” Evenkurugan replied. He took out his Playmate Sasha, a state-of-the-art Gatling gun*, and donned a pair of shades. “I am so cool” he muttered before pulling Sasha’s trigger. As a spray of bullets rained out on the zombies, Sage and eture rushed up behind him and bopped Even on the head.

“QUIET! They react to sounds!” Sage hissed at Even through clenched teeth.

All seemed quiet for now. The zombies they had been dealing with; were now simply a gooey mess on the ground, with thankfully no sign yet of additional zombies.

“It looks like the coast is clear” Cherub mentioned after looking around the corner.

“So what do we do now?” eture was unsure of what they should do at this point, as was everyone else.

“What about seeing Capt Richard? I’m sure he’ll be able to sort this out.” TAY3LOR threw the suggestion out since she had no other ideas. “He seems to know about zombies and such from all his books. Besides, it’s only about an hour’s drive to him from here.”

With no other ideas coming forward, everyone agreed that it would probably be for the best, although they might want to make sure he’s alright first. Even grabbed his cell and sent Capt Richard a text. “Well, at least texts can still be sent for the time being at least. Let’s hope he receives it and can reply.”

*****

As the team slowly made their way into the old mill, it felt like they weren’t alone. It was dark and dust covered everything, and the mill gave the appearance of being haunted, not just shut down and abandoned.

“Anyone know an interior decorator that would be interested in remodeling this place?” Stein asked jokingly, trying to lighten the mood a little.

“This place is creepy” Horn commented, unsure of where to step for fear of stepping on a rotten floorboard and thus falling to his potential death below.

Capt Richard and Stein however hit the jackpot for creepiness. Their flashlights had come across the skull of a bull which was dangling on a rope above what looked like strips of shiny business cards. “What the hell?” Stein asked as Richard knelt to take a closer look.

He reached out to touch the material and found it had a leathery feel to it, smooth yet somewhat coarse in texture. And then he figured out what it was. “HOLY s**t!” He stumbled backwards as adrenaline rushed through his body.

“What is it?” Panda asked as she headed over with Tamako and Djinii.

As they caught sight of the pile, Capt Richard cleared his throat. “It’s strips of human skin and flesh. Like someone shaved it off with a wood plane.”

Richard was interrupted however as he tried to regain some composure by his phone buzzing on vibrate. “That’s odd.” Taking out the phone, he noticed a text message from Evenkurugan asking if he was alright and that they were heading his way.

“What is it?” Tamako asked.

“It’s from my old Gaia friend Evenkurugan. He wants to know if he and the Detroit gang can head up here to help out.”

“The more help we can get, the better I think” Tamako replied.

Typing back his reply of being alright and to try and “borrow” a boat for the group to escape on if need be, he told Even to meet up with him at the old mill. “Hopefully they can find a boat to use.” Capt Richard muttered.

*****

As eture drove the team out towards Capt Richard at nearly twice the posted speed limit, Even got the text back from Capt Richard. After reading it, he scratched his head. “Why does he want us to borrow a boat? And where are we going to even find one?!”

Karma glared at Even. “You’re so silly Even. We go to the boat show in the neighboring town to where Capt Richard is and get it from there. That’s so obvious!”

“Oh yeah?!” Even was getting annoyed with Karma at this point. “And just how do you propose we get to it without attracting attention?”

“We use Sasha” Karma replied with an evil smirk on her face.

“I’m not using my girlfriend for that!” Even took Sasha and nuzzled his cheek against the gun’s multiple barrels.

“Even, do we need to get you a psychiatric exam for having an erotic relationship with an inanimate object?” Sage looked back at Karma and Even as Karma asked that question.

“Even, I want you to be happy.” Sage said, gaining a dejected look of shock and dismay from Evenkurugan as his head dropped in shame. Karma burst out laughing before looking towards eture who had continued to drive throughout this debate.

“Hey! eture! A slight change of plans! Take us over to Highpoint and the Expo Center there. We’re going to take their finest boat from the boat show and use it to help Richard and his other friends out.”

Eture nodded in understanding. “A driver’s job description is driving. Leave it to me!” She took the exit for Highpoint and made her way through the empty streets towards their destination, all the while towing an unknown stowaway on the rear bumper of the van.

*****

Back inside the mill, Mocha kitty had gone off alone and was sitting in the Manager’s office when she thought she heard a soft tinkering noise from by the vicinity of the door. Shining her flashlight in the general direction, she didn’t see anything, and so she sat back down in the musty chair and looked through some of the papers on the desk. It seemed the mill had a darker history during its tenure in the community. For included in the pile were reports of workers who had suddenly disappeared from their stations and of strange sounds which bellowed from beneath the basement. It seemed workers had even at one time staged a protest to working in the basement because of the noises they would hear rising from the concrete floor, as if the building went even deeper than just the basement the workers and managers knew of.

Mocha kitty at this point was so engrossed in what she was dong, that she didn’t notice the door slowly closing ever so quietly. She wondered if some secrets could be found under the floor in the basement to help solve the mystery of at least what had happened with the workers and those apparent eerie sounds which had been heard so long ago during the mill’s operational years.

“What happened back then?” she wondered.

Continuing to be lost in thought, a shadow appeared to crest the moonlight which shone through the office window, though no physical object could be visibly seen to be making it.

“Mocha kitty…” A soft whisper echoed throughout the room, seemingly coming from everywhere, and nowhere at the same time. It had no defining characteristics of being male or female.

Mocha kitty shot her head up from the desk and looked around, shining her flashlight as she did so. “Who’s there?” she asked sternly. There was no response. Shrugging it off as her imagination, she resumed looking at the documents on the desk.

The shadow which was seen in the soft moonlight but wasn’t visible under the light from her flashlight, soon took a towering form over her as it bent over, It appeared the head of this shadow was now by the side of her face as once again, it called out.

“Mocha kitty…”

Mocha kitty looked up once more as the door opened, and there was Djinni. Mocha kitty looked somewhat shocked as Djinni walked in. “Oh! It’s you. I thought for a moment my mind was playing tricks on me.” Mocha kitty caught her breath. The shadow figure had vanished as soon as Djinni opened the office door.

“Are you alright?” Djinni was confused as to what Mocha kitty meant by that, since she’d only just arrived.

“Fine! Anyway, you need to take a look at all this!” She pointed at the pile of papers and smiled. “It seems there’s more to this mill than meets the eye.”

“What is it?” Djinni walked over and glanced at a couple of the reports.

“Well, for starters, they seemed to have had problems with missing workers and strange noises in the basement throughout the life of the mill.”

Djinni rolled her eyes. “Oh great! So we go from zombies out there to ghosts in here! That’s just perfect! My life is now complete! I can die by zombies wanting to eat my brains, or be frightened to death by the supernatural! What a great selection of choices on how I want to die! It’s perfect, don’t you think?” Her tone of sarcasm was rather obvious.

“Ha, ha. Very funny Djinni.” Mocha kitty waved her hands and gave a “Whooo” before turning her attention back to the documents before them. “It may not be ghosts though. There might be something else such as zombies trapped beneath here.”

Djinni’s face went pale. “You know something Mocha kitty. Sometimes you can say things which freak me out.”

Mocha kitty smiled. “Thanks Djinni. I’m glad I can help. But in all seriousness, let’s get the others in here to take a look at this.” She then headed out of the office and called out to everyone to come over to the office on the upper level, as she had something to show them. As she called out, the shadow appeared once again on the wall behind her, seemingly reaching a pair of arms out towards her neck, but vanished as she turned around.

*Gattling gun:

 

[Waffle King Richard]

Chapter Four

Arriving at the boat show after hours, Evenkurugan began picking at the lock. As he did so, Karma began to grow impatient.

"Hurry up Evenbutt! You're too slow!"

"Karma, I hate to break it to you, but Best brand locks are one of the highest grade locks on the market, and are difficult even for professional locksmiths to pick. It will take at least a few minutes to do this." Even then resumed his work.

When the lock had finally been picked, the group stormed in and looked around, seeing if they could find a boat they could use. It took several minutes of debating before they finally settled on an 85 foot yacht, opting to loot any food and champagne bottles from the other boats.

e t u r e proceeded to get into a forklift with Cherub in the other. As the two of them lined up on either end of the boat, Evenkurugan got to work assembling a stand he could hook Sasha up to at the bow,

As the two forklifts began lifting the giant yacht off of its blocks, Sage and Karma opened the loading doors and started clearing a path for the boat to travel to the water's edge nearby.

It took nearly an hour for the two forklifts to maneuver the massive yacht over to the water and then begin to lower it. Evenkurugan had finished making a mount and had begun hotwiring the engines. The two 1000 gallon diesel tanks were showing both to be fullm but Even called out to Karma.

"Karma, see if you can get some gas canisters and fill them up with diesel. I don't know how much fuel this vessel will be burning as we move, and we may need supplies before too long!"

Karma sighed as she and Sage went to see if they could find any. To everyone's relief and surprise, they managed to find several canisters filled with diesel behind the expo center building. e t u r e loaded them onto a pallet which she used the forklift to bring it over. Cherub meanwhile was holding onto two ropes with her hands to prevent the boat from drifting out whilst waiting.

Upon loading the fuel and getting everyone on board, e t u r e then took the helm and began steering the yacht towards its current destination of the old Paper Mill.

Evenkurugan knew they had a while before reaching their destination, so he went down under to polish Sasha and get her ready.

As the vessel slowly moved forward, e t u r e was having to rely not only on the GPS unit on the dash, but also the compass and depth finder in order to ensure they didn't run aground or strike something. She had Karma take control of the bow's floodlight, swinging it back and forth. They weren't traveling at top speed admittedly, but the system predicted they should arrive at the mill within the hour.

*****

Meanwhile, Mocha Kitty and Djinni waited as everyone else headed into the office area.

"So, what's up?" Tamako asked as Capt Richard walked in last.

"Take a look at this." Mocha kitty replied whilst setting the documents out for everyone to look at. "It clearly shows that there was more going on at the mill whilst it was in operation, than the public was lead to believe." Everyone look at the statements regarding something happening beneath the basement that appeared to show management covering something up whenever employees brought up concerns of strange sounds and such coming from beneath the basement floor that seemingly were unexplained.

Whilst they continued to study the documents, Richard suddenly noticed that it had gotten somewhat cold, as he could see his own breath. His parents both noticed it as well. Quietly, Richard made his way out of the office door. It was still warm outside that room. He walked back inside and made his way over to a vent, holding a tissue to it. There was no movement by the tissue, signalling that no air was traveling through the vent, and getting a sigh of relief since there was no power to the mill.

He walked back over to the desk as Panda looked at him strangely.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

Richard simply held up his hand, as if asking for everyone to be quiet. He reached into his pocket and took out his micro recorder he used for recording radio conversations between he and air traffic control during flights and held it out before him.

"Is there anyone here who would like to speak with us?" he asked, before giving a few moments silence. "I know someone has to be here, as there's no source for the cold temperatures we're all feeling. Why don't you come here and talk with us?"

For the sake of it, Djinni then asked a question. "Were you a worker here who remembered the strange noises from beneath the basement?"

A few seconds later, Richard stopped the recording and played it back in his ear. After a moment, everyone could see his expression turn to that of fear, with his face going extremely pale.

"What is it?" Stein asked.

Without saying a word, Richard simply lowered the recorder down and turned the volume up to full blast before replaying the audio clip once again.

There was no audible response to either of Richard's questions, however the same could not be said of Djinni's question. Upon hearing Djinni ask whether they were a worker who remembered the strange noises from beneath the basement, there was a brief 3 second pause, before a voice could be heard. A voice they had not heard before, and it did not sound of this world.

"JUST GO AHEAD AND DIE!"

"Okay... Who votes we get out of here?" Panda asked.

"And go where? Until the others get here, there isn't much we can do." Stein replied.

At that moment, the heard the sound of glass shattering from outside, along with groaning sounds.

"You have got to be kidding!" MHHornfreak said before running out of the office to a window and looking outside. Sure enough, a pack of zombies had reached the mill, and were trying to force their way inside.

At that moment, Richard's cell phone rang. Answering it, he discovered that the Detroit gang were nearly there as Sage updated him on their progress.

"Just get here as fast as you can! The zombies are already here and I dunno how long we can hold them off!"

*****

Sage went down below upon hearing that and looked at Evenkurugan. "You and Sasha had best get into position. Sounds like you're going to have to shoot some zombie butt!"

Even quickly stood up and took hold of Sasha, before slowly walking up and outside, making his way around carefully to the Bow where he attached Sasha to her makeshift stand. They still weren't there yet, but Even watched in his sight to ensure no zombie would get past him once they reached the mill.