It's baaaaaaaack.



Chapter Twenty-Six


    Alfred's POV

    Goin' to McDonald's! Just like old times. I pulled open the door and stepped inside, expecting the smell of salty french fries and just-cooked hamburgers. Instead, the place smelled musty and unused. Dead.

    Walking up to the counter, I snickered to myself. Oh Zana, you know nothing about fast food! What, with all of your home-grown food. The ice cream machine is ALWAYS on! Hopping over the register, I grabbed a cone. I reached for the handle, and pushed down. I heard a sputter, and melted vanilla liquid splattered on my jacket. Gross. I just cleaned it....

    The machine clunked, and the vanilla turned to blood. It spattered everywhere. On my jacket, on my face, in the cone. Actual ice cream started coming out, but it had blood all over and in it, tinging it pink and red.

    “Oh my god!!” I pulled the cone away, pushing the handle back up. “Gross!!! Blood ice cream!!!” I threw in down in disgust, wondering just where that blood came from. Or who...

    “H-hello? Is someone there? P-please, help...” A small voice squeaked from behind the fryer.

    “Hello?” I leaned down and peered under, to find a teenage girl crouched down, brown hair in her face and blue eyes wide. “Hey. It's alright. Take my hand.” I said, a bit softer, holding out my hand. She took it nervously, and stood up. She was cute, but she was covered in grease, food, and blood. “What happened here?”

    “M-my boyfriend. We were hiding out here, when he heard a weird noise coming from the back. He went t-to investigate, when I heard him yell. I ran over, a-and.. and...” She burst into tears, shaking violently.

    “Hey. It's alright. Did you get bitten?”

    She held out her arm, where a small piece of skin was missing. She nodded. “I'm going to die. I know full well. I just...... Evan....!” She started sobbing again.

    “Hey, um... random question. Was it somewhere behind the ice cream machine?”

    “Yeah. Why?”

    Ew. “No reason....” I shoved the cone under a random table casually.

    There was a crash from the back, and I ran over, not thinking. Reaching down for my gun automatically, I grabbed nothing but air. What? I guess it fell out. Great. Rounding the corner, I came face to face with a Creep. It was wearing a McDonald's uniform, and was half eaten away. I'm guessing that this is the boyfriend.

    Clutching the nearest thing (in this case, a spatula), I ran at it. Yelling a battle cry, I stuck the handle of the spatula right in it's eye, zombie goo splattering my face. Gross....! The Creep groaned at me and swung his arms around, apparently not dead yet. Well, re-dead. As is tried to lumber it's way towards me, I pulled the spatula out of it's eye, flinging it on the floor. The zombie moaned again and grabbed my arm, pulling it to it's mouth.

    “No.... I'm not going to DIE!!” I kicked it's face (epically), sending half of it's jaw across the room. The Creep gnashed what was left of it's teeth at me, forcing me to back up against the ice cream machine. Bad idea. There was a loud clang, and ice cream started going everywhere. Coating me, the Creep, and everything around us. Blood and dairy product covered my glasses, and I couldn't see a thing. Yelling and freaking out, I took them off and tried to run the counter, only to slip and fall in a puddle of red and white gunk.

    “This is grosssssssss.......” I complained, wiping sludge off my arm. I took the cash register and turned, attempting to smash the Creep's face in. Where are you guys?

    End Alfred's POV

    I tried sitting up slowly, only to have the world spin out of control and send me back on the floor. I heard distant sobbing at first, but then it got closer. Someone was crying. But who? What for? I tried again, this time the world not swirling so much. Getting to my feet carefully, I staggered my way to the Staff Room doorway, where everyone was gathered. A hand touched me, and I saw Matthew lean to my ear.

    “Elizaveta's dead.”

    No. No, we were all going to make it to Peter's house. All of us. We were all going to survive. All. I scanned everyone's faces, feeling mine get hot. Tears overflowed and ran down, gazing at Elizaveta's body. A bleeding shoulder and a clean bullet hole. A favor from a friend, or from herself. Seeing her made me think. We need to stop making stops. Just live on what we have and drive straight through. Didn't we have enough in the first place? Of course we did. We just stopped for gas, nothing more. There was no need to go inside. If we hadn't gone inside, she wouldn't be dead. Greedy humans. That's what we are. If something pops up along the way to safety, we take it. We eat it. We devour it until nothing is left. Then we continue on. On until something else pops up. Then we take that, too. Selfish beings. Don't we have enough? I looked over to Gilbert, and realized that he was the one crying. I wanted to comfort him somehow. Take his hand and help him through. But it didn't seem right. Like I shouldn't. A bad idea. His brother was dead. His girlfriend was dead. His childhood friend was dead. He was going through so much, yet he still stood strong. I admire him for that.

    “Zana, don't you think it would be a good idea to go and get Alfred?” Matthew reminded me. I nodded and silently slipped out, not wanting to cause a fuss. Roderich was probably a mess. I didn't see him in there, so he was most likely somewhere else, hiding his pain. He and Elizaveta had been together for years. Walking into the cold air, I headed across the abandoned street. The place was creepy. You knew that something or someone was there, but you never actually saw them. You just felt the presence of something bad. Very bad. I pushed the door to McDonald's open, hearing a rusty bell ding softly.

    “HELLO?!” I heard Alfred call from the back. I ran and hopped over the counter, landing in a puddle of disgusting pink slush.

    “Alfred?! Are you alright? What is all of this stuff?” I finally located him, sitting in the corner, holding a broken cash register.

    “Yeah yeah I'm fine. And you don't want to know what this stuff is.” He puffed, obviously out of breath. Laying in the middle of the floor were the remains of what could've been a Creep at one point. “Hey, can you go check if that girl is still alive?”

    “What girl?”

    “Just check.”

    I searched around the cooking areas and couldn't find anyone, so I headed to the bathroom. Just as I was about to open the door, I heard a loud crash coming from inside. Bingo.

    “Miss? Are you in there?” I pushed the door slowly, steping in. She was facing the wall, hunched over and silent. “Miss-”

    She lunged at me. Her teeth snapped and her fingernails scraped at me, while I tried to fend her off. She didn't look like she was dead for long, but she seemed hollow. Like a husk. I took her hair and smashed her into the mirror, causing it to shatter. Her limbs went still, and I tossed her to the ground. I headed back out and came to Alfred again.

    “So?”

    “Dead.”

    His thunked his head on the wall. “Dammit.”

    “How long ago was it that you found her?” I asked.

    “About.... half an hour ago. Why?”

    “Was she showing any symptoms?”

    “Come to think of it... no.”

    I sighed. “This is bad, Alfred. It means that the process is happening faster. It's evolving. Either that or you're a complete moron, which is what I'm leaning towards.”

    “Hey! That wasn't very nice. And I know she wasn't having symptoms. I'm not a complete moron.” He pouted. I rolled my eyes and offered my hand, which he took and pulled himself up.

    “You look disgusting.” I wrinkled my nose at the goo on him.

    “Comes with the job.” He grinned.

    “What job?”

    “Being a badass zombie killer.”

    I smacked him playfully. “Nincompoop.”

    “What kind of a word is that?!” He laughed.

    Alfred's POV

    I'm sorry, Zana. I just can't let you know. I know that I'll have to eventually, especially with it infecting faster, but not now. I can't.

    I rolled my sleeve down to cover up the teeth marks.

    End Alfred's POV