Episode 15: When Things Start Looking Good…

Waldo, Dawn, Zach, Marty, Jack, and Sally (just to remind you who was in this group) were beginning to tire. Well, Dawn, Zach, Marty, and Jack were. Waldo, being a stoic and having not walked quite as far as they had, was not tiring significantly. Sally, likewise, knowing exactly where she was going and was trained to walk for long distances. Dawn was ready to collapse and be left behind-even though Zach, at least, would not have allowed it, and would have carried her the rest of the way, however awkwardly it would have been considering his sword-when Sally suddenly stopped them. They were approaching the first corner that they had seen, though that may have had something to do with the fact that corners were hard to see, because of the color of the walls. There were distinct shadows, however, that betold a passage to the right.

"There’s someone around the corner. If we’re lucky, it’s my associates. If we’re not, well, you can run, right?"

Zach grinned and drew his sword. Waldo, silent as ever, pulled out his gun and held it at the ready. Dawn did the same nervously. Sally rested her hand on her holster. She slowly advanced to the corner, and spun around it, gun drawn.

"FREEZE!"

(Freeze? Seriously? some unheard and unsourced multi-dimensional voice said)

Sylvie and Mina froze where they sat. Sylvie was trying to push a door-in fact, the only door left in the hallway, as it was the end-and Mina was curled up and holding her own knees.

A loud report echoed through the halls, and there was a gaping, handgun barrel sized wound in the wall just above Mina’s head. Waldo had turned the corner seconds after Sally. Dawn was right after, and she smacked him in the back.

"Sorry," he said half-heartedly.

"What are you doing here?" Zach asked when he came around. Marty and Jack just stood and watched.

"Getting shot at, apparently," Sylvie glared at Waldo. Mina curled up a little more.

"You shouldn’t be here," Sally said matter-of-factly, putting her gun away.

"We were trapped in Mina’s basement, and found our way down here. And now we’re stuck." Sylvie continued to glare at Waldo, but took a brief moment to smile at Dawn, who deeply appreciated the gesture. Mina stayed on the ground, but opened her eyes to acknowledge that she was alive and unharmed by the bullet. She glared at Waldo before shutting them again.

"Okay," Sally raised her gun back up to point towards the door (she had spun it at Waldo when he had fired) and took charge again. "I take it that you all know each other. We’ll have time for introductions later. When we’re safe. We just have to get through that door. So move it people!"

Three of those following Sally obeyed her in their dreamlike state (that is, Dawn, Jack, and Marty ((who was still drunk and had no idea what was happening))) while the other two did what seemed natural. Zach loosened the grip on his hilt, but continued with his hand hovering above it. Waldo lowered his gun, but continued with it pointed vaguely in the direction of Mina; he hoped that an "accident" might happen. Sylvie leaned down and helped Mina up, who continued to cringe in the light. Sylvie stared at the weaponry, utterly confused, as she retreated around to the back of the column.

Sally advanced to the door that Sylvie had been trying to open. She was careful about it, gun held out in front until she reached it. She reached over and flipped open a keypad, and started punching numbers. Sylvie dragged Mina along, and sidled up between Zach and Dawn.

"So, now, what exactly is happening here?" Sylvie asked, watching Sally rapidly hit keys.

"Zombies. Government. Weapons. Scary shit."

"Zombies?" Mina piped up, and held her head up on her own, eyes fully open and now oblivious to the bright lights.

"Yeah, zombies."

"Hey, that reminds me… What happened to those singing people in the graveyards?" Sylvie let her guarded act down.

Then there was a moment of silence; the three in the daze had nothing to say, Waldo was staring at Sylvie adoringly (though, you couldn’t tell it to look at him), Zach was staring at Sylvie in confusion, Mina was looking around in terror, and Sylvie was gazing into space, comprehending that the people in the graveyards had somehow had something to do with the alleged zombies, but no idea how, or, for that matter, if the zombies were really real at all. Of course, this strange, bright hallway attested to the fact of everything that she was hearing. The only sound in the hallway for a minute or two was the sound of Sally punching away at keys, which beeped and clicked softly each time they were pressed. She pressed very rapidly, and it seemed as if she had been doing it for quite a long time.

And then they heard the army marching down the hallways. All of them spun and looked behind them, raising whatever weapons they had. Sally put her weapon on the ground and slid it towards Jack, who after a moment of not noticing it, took it, looked at it, looked at Sally, looked at the gun again, and pointed it towards the hallway behind them. Sally returned to punching keys.

Zach dropped his backpack to the ground and quickly pulled out the last two guns in it (he still had the empty one in his pocket) and offered them to Sylvie and Mina. Sylvie quickly took one, and Mina slowly and gingerly took the other. Zach stood back up, leaving the backpack on the ground, and pulling out his sword. Silence erupted amongst them, besides the echoing march of the army and the rapid clattering and beeping of the keypad. The marching got louder and more uniform, and Sally sped her fingers up. If any of the rest of them had been watching, they would have been amazed at the new burst of speed; it was already incomprehensibly fast.

Minutes passed, the echoing growing louder and more frightening. It sounded like they were all walking in unison now. Waldo, being the only one who had actually seen the zombies without the mindless desire for violence of Zach , began to worry. If they were marching in unison, then maybe someone was controlling them…? What a horrifying thought…

Five minutes passed, all eight of them maintaining their positions as such. And then shadows-the first the seven watching had seen since entering these halls-cast themselves upon the wall, coming from around the bend. Everyone readied their weapons…

And stopped themselves from firing or charging just in time.

A moment passed.

And then another.

"Todd?" Waldo asked.

"Well, this is an interesting coincidence…" Todd whispered.

Sally paused in her rapid button pushing. "Hello, Todd."

"You’re not an army of zombies?" Dawn asked hopefully.

"No, not at all. Is everyone okay?" All of them examined each other (except Sally, who returned to button pushing, though back at her original quick speed), and nodded.
Jennifer took in all their faces; Zach was glaring at her, which she noticed. He glared at everyone, though she didn’t know that. Mina had returned to cringing, and had pocketed the gun. Sylvie had done the same, but seemed to be watching Todd intently, and glancing at Jennifer. Jack was still confused, Marty was still inebriated. Dawn wasn’t looking at anything in particular, but had a very distinctive look of thought. Waldo was shaking his head at the absurdity of it all. She smiled at him, but he wouldn’t smile back. She frowned, and was about to introduce herself, when Sally stood up from the keypad.
"Alright, we’re about to go into the Bureau of External Affairs Headquarters. There’s no way to tell what might be going on in there, so, since all of you have weapons now, get them out. I’ll take point."
Sally turned to the door, as everyone behind her turned to her and watched it with her. They all readied the weapons they had (Zach got out his sword, and the rest raised their guns), but Waldo just stood there, prepared to… stand there. Marty watched everyone pull out their weapons, and then tried to process what was going on for the eightieth time in that hall. Jennifer looked around, and then saw Todd’s gun.
"Why didn’t you tell me you had a gun?" She whispered jarringly.
He hesitated, and took a glance at her. "It seemed like the best thing to do."
"How long have you had it? Why didn’t you use it at the stadium?"
"I didn’t get it until we got to Dawn’s house."
"And then you didn’t tell me about it?"
"It seemed like…"
"Shut up back there!" Sally yelled. Beads of sweat were forming on her forehead. The door was taking longer to open than she thought it would. Tension rose, and everyone who had a weapon raised it and clutched it close. Finally it slid up, disappearing into the ceiling.
And on the other side, a squad, equaling their number, but all armed with weapons like the one Jack was holding, was poised to assault them.
"Agent Sally! We are not a threat!"
"Sally! Thank god you’re safe!" A man’s voice from above and straight ahead called out. Sally advanced into the room, cautiously followed by the rest of them. The soldiers let Sally in without any ado, but kept their weapons trained on the rest.
"Joe, you old dog, you made it through!" She laughed up to him, smiling.
"Not through yet. Who’re your friends?"
"I believe you know my husbands and my daughters?" He descended down a steel staircase, and got close enough to look.
"Oh, yes, you’ve told me so much about them and shown me pictures! Why does your oldest have a gun?"
Sally gave him an awful look. "She’s the youngest, remember?"
"Oh, yes, of course. It… slipped my mind."
Zach, Waldo, and Todd all looked, as one, to Dawn, then Sally, then Joe, then Marty, then back to Dawn. He had meant something more by that.
"Well who’re the rest?"
"To be honest, I’m not entirely sure. They’re all Dawn’s friends."
Joe looked across all of them. "They’re almost all armed. Where the hell did you kids get so many weapons? Would you mind them so that my men can lower theirs?"
Todd and the others who were armed slowly dropped their guns onto the ground, except for two of them. Jack handed his gun back to Sally, and Zach re-sheathed his sword. But he pulled out the empty gun and dropped it on the ground.
"Alright, so, besides Sally and her family, who are all of you and how did you end up here?" Joe rubbed his hands together, as many strange people in positions like him do when preparing to receive information.
"I’m Zach. I came for Dawn." Zach stared into Joe’s eyes, hoping that there would be a real reason to use the sword again soon.
"I’m Todd. I was at a baseball game with Waldo and Jennifer," He pointed to them when he spoke their names, "and a few other people. The zombies suddenly attacked, we escaped, split up, split up again, and I called Zach to tell him to get Dawn. And now, well, I’m downright confused."
"I would be Waldo; I came looking for Sylvie, and now I’m confused too."
"I’m Sylvie; I was at Mina’s house. What exactly do you all mean by zombies?"
Joe examined them all. "So, then, this lovely exhausted looking young lady must be Mina," he whispered, looking at her squintingly. And then he looked to the very back, where Todd was.
"And you must be…" He gasped sharply.
Jennifer smirked. "Hello Joe. Haven’t seen you in nearly ten years."
"Jennifer… And you haven’t aged a day." He smiled weakly.
"Neither have you."
And suddenly Jack gasped sharply.
"Holy… But the copper bosses killed you Joe…"
Joe frowned passionately. "I never die," said he.
And silence enveloped the room.
"Well…" Sally uttered after a minute. "This sure is awkward."
Todd had been looking at Jennifer primarily through the silent moments. When it was finally over, he opened his mouth.
"Don’t ask," she said. "You leave this alone, I’ll forget about the gun." She turned and smiled sincerely. He looked into her eyes, and nodded back.
"So, what now?" Sally asked.
Joe shook his head to clear it up. "Well, first, we have to get in order. All our operatives have either reported in or been confirmed dead. You were the last. And, with the state of things, it looks like you brought replacements. Can they all be trusted?"
Sally nodded. "My family can be trusted, sir. I think all of Dawn’s friends can be trusted too."
He leaned in and whispered. "Jennifer will help us I’m sure, but I’m going to have to have someone watch her. Do you mind doing that?"
"No, sir," she whispered back.
"Excellent!" He said loudly. "Now, most of you have weapons… Go ahead and pick them up. They’re safe now, they’re, well, I’d like to not be cliché but it’s hard to avoid, they’re ‘honorary operatives’ from here on out. Get the ones without weapons guns. And someone shut that door!"
The door shut behind them, and Joe turned; he led them into the main part of the room. Before they followed, everyone had the sense to pick up the weapons they had dropped. Zach considered tossing his gun into his pack, but decided against it.
If you’ve ever seen a movie with the headquarters of a super villain or a covert government organization, you’ve seen this room. Only difference is, it maintains the whiteness of the halls, nearly preventing anyone from being able to divine exactly where consoles began and ended. Each console was attended by a man or woman in a drab grey suit; each of them was clattering away, or intently watching a screen, or going something that looked generally productive.
"If we live long, I’m going to want to know someday, though," Todd whispered to Jennifer as soon as they started moving. Her face twisted to shock for a moment, but she quickly returned to herself. He handed her the gun, and she was surprised again.
Sylvie held Mina up, who was still cringing at the lighting state. Sylvie was frowning, because no one had answered her question. Waldo sidled up to her.
"The city’s being overrun by zombies," he whispered. "Walking corpses. Don’t worry, if anything happens, I’ll protect you.
She smiled at him; it was out of pity, but he took it to be a thankful smile. He didn’t have a gun, she was thinking, or any sort of weapon at all. How could he protect her, who had a gun and a friend with a gun?
Dawn examined the gun she held in her hands again. This whole thing still wasn’t making any sense to her. But that was okay. Nothing really did much. What had Joe meant when he referred to her as the eldest, she wondered?
Jack shook his head. It wasn’t possible. It down right wasn’t possible that not only could his wife be working for some weird organization that dealt with the paranormal, but she was working for a man who should’ve died ninety years ago! Who would never, ever have gone in for an organization like this! He began thinking that the next thing he’d see would be Lee Harvey…. But, no, that would be even more impossible.
Marty did the exact same thing as she had been doing all night, as she was still as drunk as she had been all night.
Sally was a bit worried now. Not about the zombies, or even about putting Dawn and her friends in danger (she knew that they would’ve probably died anyway if they hadn’t come down here; and that if they didn’t prepare, they would probably die soon enough as well), but rather about things coming apart. Joe wasn’t being as discreet as he usually was…
They walked for nearly five minutes until they reached another white wall; this one had vague shadows on it which indicated that it was shaped very much like a garage door. Joe motioned to them to stop, but continued advancing himself and threw the door open, sliding it up into the ceiling.
"Each of you can take a weapon if you wish. They’re all military grade, and surely will help you help us help you."
They advanced into the store room, and searched for a moment.
"Sir!" one of the women at the consoles cried out. Joe spun to look at her, as did Sally. The rest of them turned in the direction.
"What is it?"
"Sir, we have a serious problem."




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