What A Real Zombie Apocalypse Would Be Like (Part 2)

I left you with a scene of despair and hopelessness- how could we possibly hope to escape this? Now, we return to the same scene, but focus on some of the individual people. Us three (me, Meaghan, and Jennifer) are huddled in a circle discussing the circumstances and how crazy they are. We are scared but trying not to think about the brutality of the situation, and trying instead to see the humor in it (we're succeeding). We find that if we don't think about the bad things, we are able to get through it easier, and we focus now on how we're going to get out of the shed to find food, water, and a more permanent and safe shelter. A little to the right of us, Kaity, Annie and Ellen are grouped. Annie is crying, and Ellen is comforting her. Kaity, being Kaity, is laughing and making inappropriate Kaity jokes about zombies and sex. Luckily, instead of being mad at her for being so insensitive, Annie laughs through her tears and eventually stops crying. (Though she has every right to, as everyone we know, besides the people in this shed, is probably either dead or a rabid brain-eating zombie monster) Around the shed are various other people we know, including John, who is standing with two other creepy anime-type people including Zakk; Chad, who spots me and starts to walk over; Andrew, who is talking to his german friends and looking worried as the one girl, Jenna, starts to cry in the arms of her creepy boyfriend dude; Dan, who is with the people he's usually with and sitting silently on one of the benches, most likely thinking that this zombie apocalypse is far more terrible than any of the video games he's played, and despite what he would have liked to think, the games have in no way prepared him for this; Shelby and Juliana, who are comforting a crying Shannon and Laura; Backpack Kid aka Derek who has let down his cool "I'm the backpack kid" outside for once and is breathing heavily and speaking to no one; Nick from our french class, who is lying on the ground staring blankly at the ceiling; and Anna from our french class, who is cryng hysterically and lashing out at anyone who tries to comfort her (her boyfriend was, as we so unfortunately witnessed, one of the ten zombies who escaped, killed the others and ate their brains, and proceeded to infect as many people around Chanhassen as possible). Suddenly there is a particularly violent banging on the outside of the shed, right next to us three, and the entire shed jumps. There is now a dent where the banging was. This incident has increased the tenseness of the shed's atmosphere considerably.

We have now been sitting in the shed for close to twenty-five minutes, with no one speaking directly to the whole group or presenting a solution to our desperate situation. Luckily, Matt Tyson, being the leader that he is, stands up on a bench and addresses the people in the shed. Everyone, including the teachers, falls silent and turns to listen. Matt announces that he thinks we should go to St. Hubert's school. He explains that the school is located on the lower level of the church, and therefore is less likely to have been invaded by the zombies. When one of the chinese kids asks "What about the zombie students?", Matt tells us that the St. Hubert's school year already ended, and there are no students present today. Another reason he thinks we should go there is because they have a cafeteria that is no doubt stocked with plenty of food, and we can all stay in one of the many classrooms of the school, in the section that has large double doors blocking every entrance. There is a general murmur of agreement, and this seems to be our plan until one asl kid points out the most obvious flaw in the idea: how we will get there. Matt pauses, and the room is momentarily silent as once again we plummet into despair. A moment later, a quiet voice is heard through the silence: the voice of Bryson, the Mormon kid in asl: "There was a bus." As he utters this statement,we realize he was right; there had been a bus parked in the parking lot behind the school, we just hadn't noticed it in our panic. Now the only question left was how to get to the bus through the football field that was no doubt swarming with zombies. As a group, we brainstorm and piece together as many weapons as we can. A few of the extremely sketchy kids have pocket knives, which we give to those who will feel comfortable using them to kill zombies. The stronger guys work together to lift the benches out of the floor; we will use these as battering rams to surround the entire group when we make our way across the field. Backpack Kid aka Derek has some metal pipes from his engineering class in his backpack, which we will use to hit the zombies, hopefully hard enough to kill them. We sort out the kids who have any kind of martial arts experience, as they are chosen to be on the outside of  the pack and use their skills to kill the zombies in any way they can (this includes Meaghan). Jill my old neighbor from the asl class notices some poles used in track for pole vaulting that are mounted on the wall, and we quickly take those down to use as well. Finally, we're ready. We assume our position as a mass of about 85 students surrounded by benches, and slowly open the door to the shed and step out.

We notice the zombies before they notice us. They are people that we know, and the three of us spot Alexa right away, knawing on what looks like a live crow. As soon as the entire group is outside, half of us see loved ones, whether they're friends, siblings, or cousins, and, out of instinct, break from our group and run to them. I think that most likely, they can't believe that their sister or best friend would actually attack them, zombie or not, and they run to try to embrace them or convince them that deep down they really are human. Unfortunately, they are zombies, not humans, and the thirty-five or so people that so foolishly believed otherwise are almost immediately infected by the people they so love. Our group is cut in half, and the rest of us quickly move together to fill the gaps caused by those who left. By now, the zombies have obviously noticed us, and one by one, begin to attack. We use our crude weapons to knock them down as we break into a run, struggling to keep our enclosed group together. We reach the sidewalk leading up to the school, and Reid, who is in the back, slams the gate shut behind us. Regrettably, we are not out of harm's way yet. There is still a scattering of zombies along the path up to the school, and they begin to move, almost as one, toward us. Despite the horror of the situation, Jennifer and I, who are in almost the center of the group as we have no fighting skills whatsoever, laugh as we see our English teacher, clothes tattered and teeth bared, gallavant toward us with a wild look on her face. She is soon knocked down by one of the chinese kids wielding a vaulting pole. We have reached the tennis courts. We have to move around them, as we can't go too close to the still burning school. Luckily there aren't too many zombies around the school, as most of the students were killed in the bombing (the few hundred that survived had already been turned into zombies and escaped before the military reached the school). We manage to make it to the bus, where we almost kill each other trying to squeeze onto it. We keep our weapons with us. Matt, being the calmest and most rational, is appointed the driver, and we all huddle near the front of the bus as he starts it (the keys were already in it, as the driver had been inside until he was infected) and begins the perilous journey to St. Huberts.

There are few zombies along Lyman, and the few that are present can't hope to make into our bus, as it is much too high and driving too fast for them to reach. As we drive, we look around to see who made it out of the shed. This is who it is [french kids first, then asl, then chinese, then german]: me, Jennifer, Meaghan, Kaity, Ellen, Kate, Shelby, Juliana, Laura, Alison, Nick D, Nick E, Adam (aka Joachim), Maheen, Reid, Matt, Zakk, Thomas B, Jack D aka Jacques, Jennifer S (from french 3), Sophie (I don't remember her real name. She has short hair and is in french 3), Daria, Callie, Gabe, Olivia, and the french teacher, Chad, Jill, Julia J, Bryson, Derek, an asl kid that I've seen but don't know the name of, John (the creeper), Celeste's daughter whose name I forget, three chinese kids that we don't know at all, Annie, McCallain, Julia K, Ryan R, Dan, that random kid he always hangs out with, Andrew, Jenna M, her boyfriend, that Ryan kid with the weird L last name, and two random german kids we don't know, and the german teacher. There are 48 of us.

We take Lyman to Jennifer's neighborhood, where the doors of the houses are torn off and windows are broken (sorry Jennifer). Luckily, Jennifer tells Meaghan and I that her parents were visiting in Katie in Mankato, where she has a temporary apartment since she just graduated college, and therefore are probably safe. (you either have to go with that or your parents are dead.) Speaking of parents, Meaghan says, her dad is on a trip to Chicago with Andrew to see a Cubs game, and her mom is on a day trip to the Mayo clinic in Rochester on business. I tell the two of you that my dad is also away on business at the Oracle headquarters in California, my sister is visiting her friend Phoebe who moved away to New Jersey, and Ali is on a field trip, on which my mom is a chaperone, to an observatory in St. Cloud. Satisfied that each of our immediate families is safe, we relax just a little.

Once we have traveled through Jennifer's neighborhood and reached St. Huberts, we quickly and quietly unload off the bus and sneak into the church's back entrance. The church is deserted and eerily quiet. Matt, who is now, I guess, the leader, sends half of us, including us three, upstairs to collect all the food from the kitchen upstairs, while the other half starts to secure the classrooms that will soon be our shelter.

Will there be enough food for the 48 of us? Will our shelter be secure enough? Will the zombies attack us? Will this nightmare ever end? Find out in Part 3.