Chapter Text
Alice sighed, sitting on Grace's bed. Her dad would ground her for months if he found out she was sneaking out after curfew. She and Grace had been keeping their relationship a secret for almost three months by now, ever since Alice and Deb broke up over Deb's bad smoking habit, and only a select few people knew. Richie and Ruth obviously had confronted the two at lunch last week.
~~~~~~~ Flashback ~~~~~~~
Richie cornered Grace and Alice in the cafeteria, scowling. Ruth stood behind him.
"I'm getting a feeling you two are hiding something. Trust me, I've seen enough anime to realize when I'm being lied to." Richie went on to make a stupid comparison to Attack on Titan, which nobody understood or cared about.
"Lied to? We would never keep such a big secret from our friends," Grace spoke for the two of them. "You guys are just paranoid. And Richie, not everything is about or related to anime."
Richie scoffed, and Ruth stepped out from behind him. "You two are acting suspicious, we're just concerned. Isn't that right, Richie?"
He nodded in agreement, and pulled Ruth to the table.
Alice was glad Grace was a good liar.
~~~~~~~ End Flashback ~~~~~~~
Alice woke up from an unexpected nap to Grace shaking her awake.
"What the fuck?" She asked sleepily, to which Grace replied "Just watch"
Alice's attention was pointed to the TV, on which a news report was running. Onscreen, terrified reporters mentioned zombies.
Alice laughed. This was such an elaborate prank, even Grace was pretending to be horrified. Grace normally hated pranking, it went against her beliefs-
"Grace, please tell me this is a prank." Alice took in a shaky breath.
Grace was already standing up, picking up her clothes, packing them into a suitcase. As unbelievable as "zombies" sounded, this was Hatchetfield, if there were already gods and psychic powers, why wouldn't there be zombies?
"Nope," she said, "And I think I know exactly what's causing this. Well, not what. Who."
Alice was confused. "The fuck do you mean, Grace? A person can't do this-"
"Not a person. A god. Technically." Grace corrected. "But the zombies aren't singing... which is weird."
Alice stood up. "There is no way this is real. I-" As she leaned against the windowsill, a group of teens walked out from behind the bushes outside. "Holy fuck, Grace, why are they here? And why the fuck is Max Jägerman with them?"
"Hell if I know. Probably because there's a zombie outbreak??" Grace replied, sighing. How had Alice not caught onto the current situation?
Grace opened the window. Richie, Ruth, Pete, Steph, and Max crawled into the house.
"Have you seen the world today? All of downtown Hatchetfield is full of shambling corpses. It's a mess out there!" Richie explained. "We're lucky to have escaped with our lives!"
"Richie, you know I have a biting kink! You coulda left me out there, at least I'd be horny during my last moments alive, instead of stressed" Ruth complained.
"What the fuck, Ruth" Both Pete and Richie were obviously disgusted. "You can keep that shit to yourself. We have more pressing topics to handle, like the mother-fucking apocalypse"
Alice made an awkward second of eye contact with Max, and shuddered. "Why is Max Jägerman hanging out with a bunch of nerds?" She inquired.
Max groaned. "It's that or die with those rotting freaks out there. I'm sure Richie has at least some survival knowledge."
"No I don't"
Max clenched his fists, mumbling anti-bullying lectures at himself. "Ok, then, I'm sure someone here is at least kind of good at surviving."
A small horde of zombies stumbled through the bushes, and the nerds pulled Alice and Grace out of the house to run. Grace held a case full of important supplies. Including a handgun.
"Grace, what the fuck is a gun gonna do to things that are already dead?" Pete whined.
"I don't know? Slow them down?"
The group ran down the street. It was likely that any means off the island would be shut down after the outbreak, as Clivesdale (fuck those cowards) was known to raise the Nantucket bridge after even slight hints of disaster.
There was one place Grace knew where to hide at. "We should hide at the school. Nobody's gonna be there, it's downtown. Where the zombies are."
"Yeah, Grace, but that's where all the zombies are" Richie repeated. "I don't know about you, but I would hide somewere remote, like the Witchwood, or that creepy abandoned place in Pinebrook."
Before deciding on where to hide, the group raided a convenience store. Max was tasked with getting food and water. Grace stocked up on any medicine they would need. Steph sobbed as she realized it was likely that cell service wouldn't be possible in the near future.
Alice tried to call her dad, worried. Each time she called, it would go to voicemail. Grace comforted her.
"It's the apocalypse. I'm sure he just left his phone somewhere and is hiding safely." Grace was a bad liar under stress, but Alice appreciated the attempt.
Ruth, Richie, and Pete were sent into a Target nearby for clothing and additional things. Richie took an instant detour to the book section. He found a small collection of manga, just some mainstream stuff like My Hero Academia and Chainsaw Man, but it was enough for him to not go insane without something related to his special interest.
Ruth and Pete went into the gardening section. There was a large pair of shears and an axe, just perfect for the apocalypse. As they shopped, they heard Richie scream.
Pete ran towards the noise, with Ruth not far behind him. Nearby, in the canned goods isle, Richie defended himself from a zombie with nothing but a pizza cutter. Pete noticed that Richie had put on pants instead of the shorts he normally wore, but thought nothing of it, and that it was purely for protection from biting.
"Are you ok? That scream was pretty loud" Asked Pete.
"I'm fine," Richie confirmed. "It just frightened me a bit. Thankfully I had that pizza cutter, otherwise I'd be dead already." He nervously chuckled. He had sustained a bite on his leg that he was covering, but knew would eventually be discovered.