Episode 9: Characters Neglected Part 1

There are a number of characters that have not been mentioned for at least six episodes. We here at the Department of Chronicling* feel that this is unfair; but, the intervening episodes have already been written and broadcast**. Thus, we will devote this entire episode, and the next three***, to those poor, neglected characters who may or may not be dead. We hope you enjoy learning of their momentary fates.

At about Eleven P.M. the high pitched song had suddenly gotten louder, and anyone who was listening with any intent could hear the last few syllables. They sounded like THYKH. Afterwards, no one could quite figure out how to pronounce it, though they were certain that that was what had been sung. The end of the song had been accompanied by a strange, but beautiful, green, white, and red light filling the sky for a moment, a fact that you likely already know. Power stations went out across the state and, in fact, across the globe. Not all power went out, just some areas. The affected areas were seemingly random. Coors Field had not, interestingly, been on one of the grids that had been disabled.

It was soon afterwards that the media began to get calls about unusual activities in graveyards. First came in the reports of people in strange, rotting costumes swarming slowly out of the grave yards. The news stations thought that it was a put on at first. Then they got reports of the people in costumes attacking, and eating, people without costumes. The media began to worry, and a few stations began broadcasting it, around 11:30. Fox was the first, and called it a terrorist invasion. CBS was next, and their headlines read Costumed Cannibals. Then reports that the rotting was not a costume, that these were moving corpses, came in. By then, all the stations with news were reporting it, and even BBC America had switched to BBC News. It was, apparently, happening all over the world. CNN, watching the other stations just as all the other stations were watching each other, used the over-arcing headline "Cannibal Corpses". NBC was the first to arrive at the proper conclusion-their headline, by midnight, was "ZOMBIES!" in a slanting, kitchy horror film font.

By 1 A.M., most stations were estimating the death toll at about six hundred thousand, and Fox had begun to display a re-death toll. It was at about five hundred. They began to broadcast that the zombies could be killed by cutting off brain function. The other stations began reporting the same thing.

At 1:15, all non-news channels switched to some sort of news feed.

At 1:30, the ABC affiliate in Colorado was turned into a refuge from the onslaught.

At 1:45, the Fox affiliate in Colorado fell to Zombie attacks; they managed to switch to a national feed before the last of them died.

At 2:00, the U.S. Government released an official statement.

* * *

Todd’s family had gone to bed, collectively, at about 10:30 P.M. This was not particularly unusual; Two of them had work in the morning and, due to a strange sense of family loyalty, they had nothing in particular to do that night because Todd wasn’t there and they couldn’t do fireworks without him. So, being overall tired, they went to bed.

Genevieve and Steinbeck heard the end of the song as a sudden boom; this is reasonable, if unusual, as there was a faint "pop" and they were both asleep. They both shot up, and dashed from her bed. Genevieve quickly advanced to her parents’ room, which was just around the corner. Steinbeck, however, dashed to the other side of the house, only to glance out the window and come tearing back, see Genevieve opening her parents’ door, and then dash back across the house.

Genevieve woke her parents, just as the horrible, beautiful light flashed. This scared Steinbeck further, who managed to, defying the laws of natural physics but following very strictly the laws of kitty physics(which has recently merged with buttered-toast physics), find five hiding places at once and occupy each of them at the same time. Kitty physics contains no aspect of time, for the record.

They all saw the light and wondered what it was, as did a large portion of the rest of the Earth's population. It kept them talking for at least half an hour; at one point, Dirk quipped that, were Todd there, he would have suggested it was aliens. This amused them all-except Steinbeck, who was a bit disoriented from her loss of temporal stability, and glared at them, wondering what they were.

Genevieve was about to go back to bed around 11:30, and had stood up and everything, but then she heard something happening outside; first there was just a rustling, and then there was a lot of pounding, and then a lot of loud screaming. She dashed back to her parents’ bed, and told them. They didn’t need to be told; they had heard it too. Together, they dashed to the window at the front of their house and peeked out the curtains.

"Sweet Christ, Zombies!" Dirk yelled, in between terror and amusement. They watched the hobbling corpses as they proceeded down the street.

"Cool," Genevieve grinned almost drunkly.

"Well… what should we do?" Joanie asked, more worry in her voice than either of the other two.

"Maybe… should we turn off the lights?" Genevieve asked.

"No, no, that would be stupid. They’d notice the change." Dirk shot down the idea, knowing the natural progression of zombie movies, not to mention sitcoms, dramedies, and various other genres of television and film.

"Oh, yeah."

"Maybe we should check the news?" Joanie suggested.

"That’s a good idea." Dirk said half sarcastically, "Because if I’ve learned anything from movies, it’s that the safe houses they list are always safe."

"Well, we’ve got nothing better to do," Genevieve said. "I mean, unless you have a gun in your room…"

Steinbeck went tearing past from the same direction three times; this was perfectly acceptable to her, though the fact that everyone was up at 11:30 at night was not.

The three of them went into the family room and flipped on the TV.

"…not in costumes. These are actual rotting people out there eating other people. At this point, it is just idle speculation to suggest that they are corpses, risen from their graves. But that is what they are in this repor…" they changed the channel to CNN.

"… told that power has gone out at apparently unrelated points around the country. We are working on a map of the effected areas, but Chicago, Manhattan, and Denver are all confirmed as cold spots. It has not yet been confirmed that these incidents are related to the costumed cannibals. What? Oh, I’m being told that they are not in cost…"

Now they switched to Fox. "… a liberal media conspiracy. I don’t think… shut up… I don’t think that these corpses are really… why won’t you let me talk?… corpses are really walking around and mutilating each other. No, you had your turn. You were just… shut up!"

"Who would put O'Reilly on at a time like this?" Joanie grumbled. They flipped over to ESPN. They were still reporting sports.

They flipped back to CBS, where they had been first. So far, it seemed to be up on things the most. Of course, it was at the exact same level as all the other networks; the men and women at CBS were just pulling it off better than CNN could, for no apparrent reason. And everyone was doing better than Fox, but this was not reflected in the ratings; people liked the sensationalism of Fox, and how offensive it was. Besides, they were so loud, it seemed to the people that Fox represented America’s beliefs.

"… ppening in England and France and Africa. No reports have come in from Korea or China, though confirmation has come from Japan. It is now thought that every nation that has corpses is being assaulted by roving bands of… corpses." The reporter was beginning to look rather flustered. "I’m sorry, I’m not very good at this… A lot of the other newscasters ran away… I just… I just do the weather! This isn’t forecastable! And what about that light, huh? What was that damned light? That’s no meteorological phenomenon! What the fuck is…" beeeeeeeeeeep. The screen about technical difficulties came on.

"Well, it's nice to know that the censors will be fitting right in." Dirk said almost grimly.

It switched over to the CBS National Feed.

"CBS has a national feed?" Genevieve asked.

"Look, this is getting us nowhere." Dirk stood up. "Grab whatever you want or need and can fit in the car; we’re making a break for it."

"But what about Todd?" Joanie asked, genuine concern in her voice.

"He’ll be fine. He knows zombies. We can’t sit here all d… night waiting for him. He’ll make it, or he won’t, nothing we can do about it now. If we go looking for him, we'll probably just pass him and that Waldo kid on the road, and end up getting ourselves killed. And if we stay here, we'll end up getting ourselves killed. Safest thing to do is move out and leave a note."

Genevieve giggled a touch. "Besides, isn’t this basically his dream? He’ll be conquering zombies until the wee hours of the night."

"Wee hours?" Dirk stared at her.

"What, I can’t expand my vocabulary?"

"Okay. Grab what you need. I’ll leave a note." Dirk ran to the counter and scribbled something on a piece of paper he grabbed.

Within ten minutes, each of them had gathered up what they needed. Genevieve grabbed her CD’s, and a sizable number of Dirk’s. She had what she could packed into sleeves and disk carriers and the like, but she had run out of ones she could find, so had tossed some jewel cases into the bag.

Dirk had grabbed his duffel bag, and pumped it full of all their best sci-fi novels (specifically, Asimov, Clark, Adams), then some fantasies (Zelazny was the primary set), and some comedy CD’s for good measure (Mainly, the Firesign Theatre. He used to listen to those guys on catnip and think he was in college!)

Joanie wasn’t sure what to grab. So she opened up the freezer and the cupboard and grabbed all the alcoholic stuff they had; they were out of beer. She tossed it all into a lightweight cooler with some blue ice. She also took a moment to try to call Waldo's phone, to try to reach Todd. It was busy. She figured that that was a good sign.

The three of them met at the front door, with their bags.

"I got the music," Genevieve held hers up.

"I got the books," Dirk replied.

"I got the booze!" Joanie cried. Dirk cheered. Genevieve shook her head and grinned.

"I get to drive!" she said.

"Only when your mother and I are good and snockered, young lady!"

They began to open the door, when they all simultaneously realized the flaw in their plan.

"There are a lot of zombies out there. How are we going to get this stuff out of here without dying?" Joanie asked, speaking for all of them.

They opened the door enough to see out of. They peeked out in unison. The zombies weren’t that many; but if one of the living went out there, the dead would instantly swarm, and it would be bad.

Joanie used the moment of consideration to remember that they might need money, despite the pending apocolypse. So she went into her room and grabbed all the money she could remember the location of

"I’ve got it!" Genevieve said. "Who’s the fastest?"

Both of them looked at her.

"Oh. Right. Alright, give me the keys."

"What?"

"I’m going to run out there and start up the car; then I’ll drive it up here. You guys run out with all the stuff."

They thought for a moment.

"You know," Dirk said, "It’s as good a plan as any."

Genevieve grinned. "Guess I’ll be driving before you’re snockered."

Dirk tossed her the keys. "You know how to start it, right?"

Genevieve scoffed, which was not a thing that she did often, because she wasn’t entirely sure how to scoff. "Of course I know how to start a car."

She opened the door and looked around. Shouldn’t be too tough… She pushed open the screen door as silently as she could, which wasn’t very, as it was squeaky. No zombie heads turned yet, though. She began to advance towards the car. The steady clop of her shoes on the cement produced an ominous echo. A few zombies began to turn towards her. She gritted her teeth and ran the rest of the short way down the walk. She drove the key into the passenger’s side lock, and twisted. The door unlocked, and she wrenched it open. She dove in, climbed over the gear shift, and, after reaching over to close the door, started the car. She revved the motor-and caught the attention of several zombies.

"Damn," she grumbled to herself. Shouldn’t have revved that engine, should she’ve? Oh well, too late to undo it. This wasn’t solitaire.

The zombies, the ones that weren’t already turning, began to turn. She hit the gas pedal and went forward. She turned the car in a U-turn, then went ahead and did the last 90 degrees. She went shooting up onto the lawn, and curved the path right before hitting the house. She rolled down the passenger side window and unlocked the doors. "Get in!" She yelled.

Dirk, carrying his bag and Genevieve’s, and Joanie, carrying the cooler full of booze and cash, dashed out the door.

"We’ll leave it open for Todd!" Dirk cried when Joanie started to turn around to shut the door. They jumped off the stoop and Dirk opened the backseat. He tossed his bags in and jumped in himself; Joanie tossed in the cooler and opened up the passenger side door, and climbed into it. They both shut the doors at the same time, just before Genevieve started driving again. She tore up the neighbor’s lawn before managing to turn back onto the street. And she drove, very quickly.

"Give me the wheel!" Dirk said.

"Not until we find a clear area!" Joanie yelled, showing her sensibility.

And so they found an area clear of zombies. And Dirk and Genevieve switched places. Dirk took the bag of CD’s with him. Before they took off, he rooted around in the bag.

"The Kinks? Good girl!" And he slid in Low Budget.

They drove, deep into the night.

* * *

Steinbeck looked out the open door, and watched the shambling corpses. They had stumbled after the escaping car for a moment, but soon forgot about it (as much as zombies have memories) and went about their shambling business. They ignored Steinbeck and, in general, the entire house. Occasionally one would stumble up onto the porch, and she would meow at it through the door.

Her food and water bowl was empty, and that made her hungry and thirsty.

The zombies she mewed at would stare at her, almost as if they recognized the creature, then turn and hobble off somewhere else.

Steinbeck was sad.

* * *

Sylvie and Mina had still been on Sylvie’s roof at 11. They had been listening to the song as it had steadily gotten longer. Mina thought it was hauntingly beautiful, like something to do with vampires. Sylvie just thought it was weird and cool.

Then it had stopped, with a pop. They had actually managed to hear a good amount of the end, because they had been straining to listen. XAALETHYKH was what they managed to understand. Though, Sylvie thought a moment after thinking this, they hadn’t exactly understood it.

They saw something that no one else had seen. They had both shot up to look around with the pop, and had noticed a number of small lights rising up into the sky. And it was after this that the flash of white, red, and green had occurred.

Now, this had all taken place over three seconds. Some may say that it is impossible for two human beings to shoot up to a sitting position after hearing a pop in time to see lights rising that only rise for about two seconds, but it did happen. And they were the only people on the Earth who knew it had happened. At least, at that time. A few security cameras at various locations had caught it, but they wouldn’t be checked for at least twelve hours.

They had both given each other looks when the sky had cleared and their vision had returned.

"What just happened?" Mina finally asked, in a truly confounded voice.

"I’m not sure," Sylvie grinned, "But it was pretty damn cool!"

"Look, the lights are all out…" Mina pointed across the landscape, fear slowly seeping into her voice. All the individually discernible lights were absolutely pitch black.

"That’s weird," Sylvie said. Suddenly she stood up and began running to the balcony; she leapt down, very catlike, and opened the door.

Mina blinked, and followed her, albeit much more slowly. Though she wasn't at all afraid of heights, she was significantly scared of falling. But she would never explain why, so she suffered silently.

All the lights inside were off too. Sylvie’s parents were at that party, and her brother was out of town, visiting family. Sylvie hadn’t gone along because the last time she had visited the elder parts of her family, she had enraged them by pouncing on people when they didn’t agree with her. She actually pounced on them. She harbored a severe desire to be a feline. She had even trained herself to see well in the dark. She navigated around the room, to the light switch. She flipped it a couple times.

"Lights are out." she said, when Mina came in. She was good at stating the obvious when it didn’t need to be stated, and good at hiding the obscure when it was needed, or at least very strongly desired.

"Exciting," Mina said, managing to hide the terror in her voice. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck prickling up. She could tell something terrible was beginning to happen.

"I think we should g…" Sylvie started to say something, but was interrupted by blood-curdling screams.

"Go into the basement?" Mina stuttered, making for the door.

"That sounds like a good idea. Maybe we can find the circuit breaker down there."

They made for the basement. The door came open easily. It swung shut behind them with a sickening click. Sylvie managed to find a couple of working flashlights; she tossed one to Mina who fumbled with it for a moment before she managed to get a hold of it and turn it on. Sylvie found the circuit box, and flipped a couple things.

"It’s not a problem in the house’s circuiting. The power must be out."

"Oh."

"We should probably go upstairs again."

"Do we really have to?"

Sylvie tittered. "Well, I’m going upstairs. Do you want to stay alone?"

"No! No! I really, really don’t…"

"Well, maybe you’ll get lucky and the door will be stuck." She climbed the stairs to the door and turned the handle and pushed.

Her face darkened instantly.

"You’ve got to be kidding me," she grumbled.

Mina stared as Sylvie twisted and pushed, and eventually slammed at, the door. She finally gave up and sat on the top stairs.

"We’re stuck."

"Yay!" Mina exaggerated her true excitement, so as to sound not really excited.

"Have a seat. It may be a while. Mom and dad aren’t coming back for a while."

Mina’s face darkened instantly. "So… We’re stuck here?"

"For a while, at least."

Mina fell backwards onto the randomly placed, very soft carpet. "Wonderful."

They were in there until at least one before Sylvie began pacing around looking for a way out. This mostly consisted of trying the door again.

"There’s something bumpy under the rug," Mina said, at about 1:30, after Sylvie had checked every wall for a hidden door. Sylvie gave her a nasty look, and pulled her up.

The two of them together pulled away the rug.




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*Department of Chronicling is not a real department in any way, shape, or form.
**No episodes have, at the time of this writing, actually been broadcast. They have only been put on the internet.
***In two of the next three episodes, the characters detailed have been mentioned very casually within the last six episodes. We are also now out of asterisks for this particular episode. We would borrow some from a neighboring episode, but they're all very rude and some of them have not yet occured.