Episode 4: Things Get Moving

There was much more audible screaming near the exit than there had been, which had been none. Todd and Waldo shot up to try to see what was happening, but most of the crowd was already up and running. Todd and Waldo knew that something bad was happening. This was no special knowledge; everyone around knew that something bad was happening.

The screaming got louder as waves of people reached the exit.

"That way!" Todd screamed, pointing away from the exit. Waldo looked back and nodded; they began running.

"Elli!" Waldo cried out as they approached them.

"Right!" Elli replied. He looked down at the girls, two clinging to the ground in terror and the other looking around intensely, as Waldo and Todd passed them. "Come on, ladies."

"But…" one of them (Elli couldn’t remember their names already. He knew they started with J’s, but he didn’t know what the names were or which was which) began.

"Something’s hurting people over there, and the ground’s not going to protect you if it gets through. Come on." They stood up obligingly as he took off after Waldo and Todd; they followed suit.

They stopped when they reached the dug-outs.

"What now?" Todd panted.

"I don’t know…" Waldo said as Elli and the girls joined them.

"There’s a door in there," Elli pointed into the dugout. "Maybe it’s a way out of the stadium."

"But it’s locked," Waldo indicated the gate.

"That’s not a problem," one of the girls (Jessica? Elli guessed at her name as she spoke) stepped up to the door and ripped a bobby pin out of her luxurious brown hair, which fell down over her shoulders. Then she picked up a rock and smashed the lock.

Elli stared at her. She grinned at him and went into the dugout. He turned to Todd and Waldo. "I can’t decide if that was hot or stupid." He said.

"Hot." Todd nodded.

"Stupid," Waldo shook his head simultaneously.

The other two girls had already entered the dugout, so the lads followed.

They gathered around the door, and Waldo pushed his way to the front of their ensemble. He slowly reached for the doorknob. Then he heard a horrible scream from behind them, on the field, and he snapped and wrenched open the door.
(Why wasn’t it locked? Waldo suddenly wondered)

It was a dead-end; only a storage room. Disappointment gripped the six. Then terror, as they didn’t know how else to get out. Then wonder, when they noticed the figure cowering and screaming in the corner.

"Please don’t hurt me!" it had been screaming since they opened the door, unnoticed for the first few seconds of emotion. They stared at it, and it continued screaming and cowering.

After a few moments, Todd finally realized it was a person. "Are you okay?" He asked, stooping over the pathetic creature.

"AAAH! AAAAAAH!" He screamed, trying to claw his way farther into the wall. He didn't make much progress

After a moment of screaming and clawing, he finally calmed down.

"Wh… Where are the things?" he asked.

"Things?"

"The things! Oh, god, they’re out there, aren’t they? They’re… eating… people…" Todd and the others looked at him, and then each other.

"The hell…?" The phrase may or may not have gone unspoken, but it was definitely the general feeling.

Then they turned around and looked outside.

The lights had come back on. They had been able to get around alright in the dark, but with the lights on they could see it all.

Horrible creatures were hobbling at screaming, running people. When the creatures overtook someone, they would knock them down, and descend into them, tearing their flesh like ravenous vultures.

It took a few minutes for it to register that the creatures were human shaped.

When it did, Judy vomited and collapsed. Waldo retreated to a wall and tried to gather his wits, failing. Jill fainted. Only Todd, Elli, and Jennifer could keep it together at that moment.

"Oh, shi…" Todd began, to show that he was keeping it together.

"They’re eating people…" Elli whispered.

Jennifer just watched.

It took a few minutes for the shock to wear off.

"We have to get out of here," Todd said, turning away.

"But how?" Elli turned away too. "They’ve got all the exits blocked!"

"Take out their heads," Jennifer said, continuing to look out over the carnage.

"What?" Elli and Todd asked together.

"Get the boy and the girls up," she commanded.

Todd and Elli hesitated for a moment, then moved to do as she said. Todd helped Waldo up, and Elli helped the girls; first the vomiting one, then the fainting one. He still didn’t remember their names.

Jennifer went back into the room and pulled the boy up by his collar.

"You’re a bat-boy, right kid?" She snarled, holding her grip.

He sniveled for a moment, so she shook him. "Y-yes ma’am!"

"Is there a cart in here for carrying bats? IS THERE?"

"Yes! There! Don’t hurt me!"

She dropped him to the ground. "Load it up with all the bats you can find. You’re coming with us." She left the room and looked at the five she had come here with. They were getting back onto their feet, nervous, disorganized. She grinned. An army can’t be disorganized. Her army wouldn’t be.

The boy came out of the room, dragging a cart filled with baseball bats. She didn’t turn when he came.

"Are there more bats left in there?" She asked him, keeping her back to him.

"Y… Yes. I swear, I fit all I could into the cart…"

"Good." She smirked now. "Everyone!" They all turned to her. Already following orders, just like a good army should. She retreated briefly into the small room, and for a moment the other six weren’t sure what was going on. She quickly returned, though, carrying six bats. She tossed all but one onto the ground. "Take one. We’re going to make a break for the exits." She began explaining as they all took a bat. "Go for the heads. If you take off the head, smash in the brain, or do anything else to stop brain function, they will die."

"Oh my god…" Todd whispered as he held his bat. "They are, aren’t they?"

"They are what?" Waldo asked, returned to his normal countenance.

"Zombies." Elli said in astonishment

"Hey! Listen!" Jennifer hissed. Everyone snapped back to attention. "We have to stay in a group, or else we’ll never make it. Protect the bat boy! If a bat splinters, he’s our only hope for new weapons."

The bat boy cringed at that statement. People were depending on him. Sure, he could handle being depended on to carry bats to the players, but he wasn’t used to this kind of stress.

"Any of you have cars here?" Jennifer asked.

"I do; these two came with me." Waldo pointed at his companions.

"Anyone else?" No one responded. "Damn. That means we only have two cars for all seven of us."

"I can fit five if I have to," Waldo added.

"Alright, I think we can make it. Everyone ready?" Jennifer looked around. "Remember: go for the heads, and protect the bat boy."

Everyone nodded. Jennifer left first, followed by Elli, then Todd, then the Batboy, and the rest sort of stumbled out. They formed a hexagon around the batboy, Jennifer at point, Todd and Elli behind her, then the girls, and finally Waldo.

Some of the zombies who weren’t feasting on flesh turned and looked at them.

"How fast can you go, bat boy?" Jennifer whispered as the zombies that had noticed them hobbled.

"Pretty fast," he muttered back shyly.

"Then try to keep up. CHARGE!"

Jennifer took off, running as fast as she could, making for the exit where the screaming had begun. The others were startled for a brief moment, but quickly got their wits back about them and followed.

Jennifer reached the first group of zombies ahead of them-the ones who had turned-within seconds. She swung the bat hard into the head of the first one. The creature fell to the ground, its skull smashed open. The bat already felt ready to snap in her hands, and when she swung it into the second one it shattered. This beat merely fell to the ground, and began to crawl at her. She slammed the jagged remnants of the bat into its head, and it stopped moving. She slowed down to retrieve a new bat from the stash, and proceeded on to knock more ghouls out of the way.

The zombies who had made their ways to the fleeing fans at the end of the field opposite the exit had turned and began to stumble towards our heroes long ago; they now reached their perimeter. Jill turned and swung, but missed it. Her bat twisted through the sky, having escaped her grip, and struck a zombie in the back. It began to turn, and Jill screamed as the one she missed advanced on her. Judy, who had already been worrying about Jill(As I didn’t say before, they were very, very close friends), and was watching her, saw this, and leapt over. She flew into a fury, bashing it back with a smack to the stomach, and then pummeled her bat to a pulp using its head.

Waldo, meanwhile, was holding up their flank; a zombie had just crawled up from the side, and by the time it reached them they were already past; so it hobbled at Waldo. He took a crack at its head with the bat, and both came off. He hurled the remains of the bat into an already approaching zombie, and it stumbled back, only to continue its advance seconds later. He took a new bat, almost simultaneously with Jill and Judy, who had regained the best level of calm they could in this situation.

Todd and Elli had a spot in the ranks that was relatively clear of the monsters; Jennifer, in a rage that the two rather enjoyed watching, obliterated the creatures as they came. She had been through five bats already, and they were only halfway across the field. She had worked out the force of the smashes to need a new bat only every three or four kills. But every few moments one would get past her and, because she would move past it as she swung, it would be left to Elli and Todd. Now, Elli was a habitual softball player, so when he went for their heads, they went flying. (Just like T-ball, he told himself, not heads…) Todd wasn’t a softball, baseball, or T-ball player, but he did know how to swing a blunt object with relative accuracy and, well, re-fatality. They took turns with the ones who got through.

And then they breached the edge of the massacre.

It was right at second base where the carnage really began. Apparently the majority had made it at least this far before falling to the beasts.

The group hesitated for a moment; that was a long enough moment for the hoard to catch scent of them and look up from their already cooling meals.

"Damn," Jennifer muttered to herself as she rose her bat to swing. She charged in. "Don’t break formation!" Todd thought he heard her as she disappeared into the hoard. They hesitated another moment too, during which they could hear a number of splats and thunks, the hideous sound of human skulls imploding under pressure.

"Come on!" Elli screamed, and charged in. Todd was a split-second behind, and so were the rest.
The beasts began to swarm on them. It was no longer possible, generally, to aim for the head. They were just swinging, almost blindly, and hoping that they even kept the creatures at bay. To their general surprise, it worked. Their bats seemed to be a lot less fragile against torsos.

They made it through the crowd without needing to replace a single bat while inside. And, even more amazingly, not one of them had been wounded.

Waldo decided that that must be because the ghouls hadn’t noticed them until they were right there upon them, and hadn’t been sufficiently swarm like. Jennifer thought that it was because they had rushed through so quickly the beasts hadn’t entirely noticed them. Elli wondered if maybe something were protecting them. Jill thought they had just gotten lucky, and was closest to the truth. The other three tried not to think about it.

They bounded up the stands, towards the main path and stairs out, and Waldo glanced behind them. They were pursuing. They were definitely pursuing.

Todd noticed a vaguely familiar, largish face amongst the few zombies in the stands. It turned towards them and slowly hobbled at them; Todd charged out, right between the two near him, who turned and began to follow him, and reached the largish man. He swung his bat, which shattered against his head. The largish man (no, largish zombie, Todd reminded himself) didn’t flinch, so Todd, remembering the second thing he saw Jennifer do, Rammed the jagged end into his head. The creature slowly fell, and as he did Todd reached and grabbed the slip of paper sticking out of his pocket. He returned to the group, still managing to slip between the two left, and grabbed a new bat. It had taken him nine seconds, and his brief absence from the formation barely went noticed.

They made it to the stairs without any ghoulish interference, and after glancing behind her to count everyone (six, all still there…), Jennifer proceeded down the stairs.

The six other survivors continued to follow. Todd and Elli ran down the steps, and suddenly heard a loud crashing behind them. They spun, and a hail of bats fell towards them. With astounding deftness, they leapt out of the way, towards the railing at the edge; a few bats struck them vaguely, and the two dove opposite ways, towards the next pair of staircases. The bat carrying cart flew over the railing, just where the two had been moments ago. Bats continued to roll about as all gazes were fixed on the batboy.

"S… Sorry…" He whispered, getting to his feet.

"Shut up and take a bat!" Jennifer cried, helping Todd to his feet. (She has soft hands for a psycho, he thought in some part of his brain, mentally blushing.)

They paused for a moment to gather their wits about them, and get new, undamaged bats from the mess. And they charged down the left staircase, still led by Jennifer. There were more zombies on the right; there are always more zombies on the right.

They continued down, and managed to avoid hitting any zombies too hard; Todd, Jennifer, and Elli, who were still at point, had to knock a few out of the way, but never so badly that their bats felt any structural damage.

They got to the base of the stairs, and stopped. Ahead of them lay a nearly deserted parking lot. Most of the cars were still there, yet no people. The people who were there were either corpses, or shambling corpses. It was a terrible sight, in that way that pierces your soul. You can’t quite describe why it’s so terrible, it just is. Somehow, this nearly empty parking lot, was more terrible than the masses inside the stadium.

As they stood there, in a line, watching the lot in hideous terror, watching the corpses slowly become shambling corpses, something came up beside them.

Jennifer heard it and dashed to the right, raising her bat.

"Mario!" Todd heard the noise too, he had ran in much the same fashion as Jennifer had. He dropped his bat. Jennifer did, too, but she dropped it towards Mario’s skull. Todd slipped right between them, reaching up as he did so and stopping her bat. She gave him an awful look, with her eyes all the way open, looking down her nose into his eyes, with flaring nostrils. Her mouth was pursed. He returned a glare at her, having to look up to see her eyes. (He had two conflicting thoughts at that moment: My god, I can’t believe I’m holding her back, and My god, she’s beautiful.) She stepped back, continuing to give Todd a nasty look.

Mario stood there in terror the entire time.

Todd turned to him after a moment, shaking his hands to relieve the sting of the bat. "Mario! You made it out!"

"Yeah, so did you," Mario chuckled weakly.

"How’d you do it?"

"I heard the screams at the beginning of the fireworks. They weren’t nothin’ compared to that first one, so I went out to look. Then I saw those… things… and I hid. I pulled this," He rose a black, shined nightstick into view, "offa dead cop. Then the cop wasn’t dead no more, and I used it against him. I took his gun when he din’t get back up."

"We ran to a dugout when the show ended… and found baseball bats. And found our way out." Todd grinned weakly.

"I led them," Jennifer said, trying to pull herself out of her sulk. Mario gave her a look that would have sent a llama hiding. She didn't flinch.

"I guess we’re the only ones that made it, huh?" Mario asked, after a quick count of Todd’s group.

"Looks that way," Todd whispered.

"AAAAARGH!"

Everyone’s heads snapped to the left side of their army, where the scream had originated. A zombie had snuck up on them, and was now ripping at Jill’s shoulder; She struggled, but couldn’t escape. The beast was in the garb of a security guard, and looked like he had once been buff. Judy screamed in unison with Jill, and backed away as the ghoul ripped off Jill’s skin. It began chewing the flesh.

As Judy screamed, Mario shot past the crowd and shot the feasting beast through the skull. It stopped chewing and fell, motionless.

Jill fell, still screaming in terror and clutching at her shoulder. The Bat Boy ran over and caught her, at which moment she fainted. Blood still flowed from her wound. He set her down softly, and quickly ripped a large strip off his shirt. He pressed it against the wound; it quickly turned red and damp, but took a while to soak.

Mario watched and pointed the gun at her head. "Move," he whispered.

The Bat Boy ignored him.

"I said move!" Mario screamed.

The Bat Boy looked up. "No. She’s going to die if I move."

"She’s going to die anyways!" Mario screamed. "And then she’s gonna be one of them. She’s gonna come and be one of them!" His voice got louder and more panicked.

"No!" Judy cried, and leapt on top of Mario. It threw him off balance, and he dropped the gun. He threw her off after a moment.

The Bat Boy continued to try to staunch the blood flow. "We need to get her to a hospital."

"No! There’s nothing a hospital can do for her! She’s going to die and become one of those things!"

The Bat Boy raised the gun at Mario. "She needs to get to a hospital."

Mario looked around, exasperated. He looked at the other four, then at Judy, weeping on the ground. None of the four offered any help, they just watched, dumbfounded.

"Awright, I’ll take her. But you and you," He said, pointing at the Bat Boy and Judy, "Are coming with me. Chu understand?"

Judy nodded through her tears, and the Bat Boy said he wouldn’t have it any other way.

"And gimme that gun!" The Bat Boy turned it around and gave it to him.

"You two lift her up, follow me." Mario whispered, pointing at Judy and the Bat Boy again. They agreed. Judy crawled to Jill’s feet, and got to her knees.

"It was good seeing you again," Mario growled at Todd. "Good luck wit surviving." He walked off.

"You, uh, too," Todd said, confusion filling his voice.

The Bat Boy and Judy lifted Jill; it was hard work, because the Bat Boy was still trying to stop her from bleeding, and Judy was weak from the crying. But they managed to follow Mario.

After a moment, the remaining four suddenly snapped back to their wits, and looked around. Todd lifted his bat again. "Let’s get out of here," he whispered.

"You’re coming with me," Jennifer growled, pointing her bat at Todd.

He was quite taken aback by this. "What? No, I’m going with them!" he pointed his bat at Waldo and Elli.

"Then I’ll follow them," she said, with venom in her voice.

"Don’t you have your own family and friends to take care of?" Elli growled. He had decided that he definitely did not like this girl, and he still couldn’t remember her name. Waldo had decided quite the same, and he didn’t care what her name was.

"I have no family," she whispered, the venom growing.

"Oh." Todd was a bit afraid now.

"Now let’s go. My van’s right over there; it’s a clear shot from here."

They all nodded hesitantly. And then she began to run. Again, they hesitated for a moment, then followed. It really was a clear shot; there were no zombies even in sight.

It was an old clunker of a van, and anyone who saw it could tell that it had been owned by at least four different rock bands from the decals, stripped off and stickered over. She quickly and smoothly unlocked the doors, and the four of them piled in. She started it quickly (well cared for, for such an old van, Elli thought.), and hauled off.

"You got a phone in here?" Todd, sitting in the front seat, asked after a very brief pause.

"Yeah," she growled. "Make it quick."

"I will," he growled back, catching the phone she had just tossed to him.

He punched in a series of numbers that he knew by heart. It rang four times, and then a click indicated it had been picked up.

"Zach? I need you to do something, right now!" He yelled into the phone.




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