The auditorium was crowded, loud, and she hated it. She wasn't even sure why she was there, but it didn't matter much, since she was there with one of her best friends. And both of them took great pleasure in sharing sarcastic comments back and forth, laughing at things only they possibly noticed and commented on.
She had brown hair that reached a little past her shoulders and expressive blue eyes behind a pair of glasses. She was sitting comfortably in a pair of jeans and a dark red t-shirt over a black long sleeve shirt, both fitting nicely to her torso. Next to her was her best friend, Erica, she wore her blonde hair long, a bit passed her shoulder blades, and a jean and shirt combination, keeping her shoulders bare save for the straps.
"So, why are we here again?" Jade asked.
"Because we accepted a scholarship to this school and flew out to be inducted after a year of living in Japan," Erica said, "And while we're on the topic, remind me why you dragged us there?"
"Because I like Japan," Jade paused, "And I wanted to prove the 'panty shot' theory."
"The consensus?"
"Japan lives for panty shots, especially Tokyo," Jade smiled widely and Erica just sighed, shaking her head.
The auditorium lights dimmed and the assembly began. It was like a blur really, neither really paying attention, but enjoying tearing apart whoever was up in the spotlight when they saw the opportunity, and they could spot opportunity a mile away.
Jade was half-asleep, leaning on Erica's shoulder, when shouting erupted around the room. And then there was a lot of panicking and running. Jade sat up when she noticed it and turned to Erica.
"What's going on?"
"I don't know," Erica shrugged, "But we should probably get the hell out of here."
Jade nodded as she scoped the place out, she wasn't very tall, Erica was a few inches taller than her, but when it came to maneuvering through crowds, Jade always led. She saw an exit that only had a few people running through it, quite possibly a fire exit with stairs. Stairs were what she tried to avoid in these cases, a bad phobia of heights made sure of that, but she sensed the urgency of the situation. So she swallowed her fear, beating it down with a metal bat for good measure, and grabbed Erica's hand.
"This way," Erica simply nodded and let Jade work her magic through the crowds. A few times they had to stop and jump over rows of seats to bypass large crowds of panicked, crying people, but they made it to the door in good time. Erica opened the doors and peeked through, she slid through the doorway, and Jade followed, both seeing a long hall.
"They probably wrap around the auditorium," Erica said, "Think there's a way out aside from where everyone's running to?"
Jade nodded and pointed, "I see another hallway down that way," She headed towards the hall, her strides long and swift, "Let's see if we can beat the crowd."
"You get us killed and I'll kill you," Erica said, just barely keeping up with Jade.
"If I get us both killed, I'll let you," She responded, stopping just before the hallway and peeking around the corner. Neither knew exactly why people were panicking, but they both knew that it was dangerous and potentially fatal.
"Clear," Jade muttered and began walking down the hall, they came across several "forks" in the hallways, and each time they turned towards where they knew the exit lay. Eventually they made it outside; they came out on one side of a low fence, the fence being the only thing separating them from the people running in hysterics.
Whatever had transpired while they were running through the hallways, it was bad. An officer near them was shouting to the people in panic and trying to direct them. Jade stood where she was and let Erica approach the man; she was better with people than Jade. Jade tended to curse a lot when she was confused, Erica managed to keep cursing to a minimum, therefore she dealt with people.
She tapped the officer on his shoulder, "Excuse me, what's going on?"
The officer turned to her, a frantic look on his face, "Some madman dropped a gas bomb on the town and managed to spread a weird virus to everyone not here. The gas, luckily, dissipated sooner than the guy anticipated, so it's safe to go into town, but everyone infected is acting strangely," He glanced at the large crowd now at his back before continuing, "We're directing people to a portion of town that wasn't gassed, just head straight that way," He pointed in a direction south from them, "We have something set up to help people cross the river, but you'll need to hurry, I'm not sure how dangerous the infected are, or if we can hold them off long enough to get everyone across."
Erica nodded and waved Jade over, "Thanks officer," Jade tilted her head but was ignored for the moment, "We'll head there now, try not to stay here too long, too many crazies and not enough good people on the other side'll screw us over in the long run."
The officer nodded and watched them head in the direction he'd pointed, "Hurry! And good luck!"
"So, what's going on?"
"Madman, gas bomb, people infected, gas disappear, not contagious, safe haven across the river, need to hurry," Erica broke the situation down easily.
"Alrighty then," Jade nodded and grabbed Erica's hand, "Don't let go and keep moving."
And they ran, hitting empty streets and crowded streets alike. On several occasions they ran into infected people, but they were too busy with the ones that had arrived before them. It wasn't until they had the makeshift bridge in sight that they ran across any problems.
Jade had been running and only looking back occasionally to make sure Erica was still there and keeping up. The problem occurred when Jade heard a shout of pain from behind her. She looked and saw, strangely enough, a plastic fork sticking out of Erica's shoulder. There were tiny rivulets of blood slowly flowing from where two prongs had pierced deeper than the other two, and Erica was staring at it in incredulous shock.
"A fork. A plastic fork," Erica looked at Jade, "I told you I'd be taken down by something stupid, Jade."
Jade didn't answer, but she sidestepped a fork that had flown in her direction and caught another as she looked at the offender. She was surprised to see an old friend of hers, "Courtney?"
Her reply was another fork and she frowned, "Infected," She stated as she noticed the sick pallor of Courtney's skin. She caught another fork and grimaced.
"Sorry, Courtney," She flung one of the forks at Courtney and hit her in the eye. There was a spurt of blood and a comment from Erica in response.
"Your aim sucks."
"I know, shut up," Jade said as she flung the other fork in her hand. This time she struck the throat and punctured the jugular, she collapsed and Jade grimaced again as she turned back to Erica. She grabbed the handle of the fork, "Hold still," and yanked on it.
Erica hissed in pain before looking down at her best friend, "Your aim still sucks."
"Glad to know you can ridicule me while you're bleeding," Jade rolled her eyes and ripped a sleeve off her shirt, then tied it around Erica's shoulder, "That'll have to do for now, we can't afford to waste anymore time."
Erica mumbled something incoherent, but grabbed Jade's hand as they continued towards the makeshift bridge again. Jade mumbled to herself as they walked, "Hopefully no one else we know was infected."
They made it to the makeshift bridge and saw that it was a metal box with both ends opened. There was a small line of people already crossing when they arrived and the group of officers guarding the entrance greeted the both of them.
"Hurry up, ladies, we have reports of more infected heading this way," One of them said.
Jade nodded, "We're hurrying. And you might wanna send a couple people back that way," She pointed towards where they'd come from, "We ran into an infected, but we're not sure if there are anymore."
"We didn't exactly stick around long enough to see," Erica added.
The officer nodded, "Will do. Now head on through and be careful, people are still panicking."
Jade's eyes glinted as they walked through the tunnel and she turned to Erica, "you know what that means, right?"
"Um…" Erica shrugged, kind of scared by the glint. She'd seen that glint appear before every one of Jade's hare-brained schemes and was not looking forward to her reply.
"Of course you don't, you're blonde, what was I thinking?"
Erica frowned and smacked her up side the head, "What were you saying, Jade?"
"Nothing, forget it, we'll raid the Lexus dealership later."
Erica would've questioned it, but they were almost at the end of the tunnel and it was beginning to shake, like something was pushing on the side of it and trying to tip it. Jade noticed it too and dragged Erica out of the tunnel quicker. No sooner than they'd stepped out of it did the box tip onto its side and fall into the river below it.
"That…would've been bad," Erica commented, she was bent over and trying to regain her breath.
Jade shook her head, "Understatement…of the year…" She took deep breaths and worked on evening out her breath.
Several minutes later, they'd stopped gasping for air and began wandering about the area. They met up with a few people they knew and helped one of their friends get over the loss of family she'd lost in the incident. All of them had lost family or friends, so they took the time to mourn in their own ways.
When the mourning was finished, they sat around in a circle and talked. Catching up on events passed since they'd last seen each other in high school. An odd thing to do considering the circumstances, but they had never been a normal bunch.
Eventually they ran out of things to talk about and sat in silence. Theo, one of the first they'd found, broke the silence.
"What now?"
They looked around at each other, a few shrugging, and Erica stood up, "There isn't much we can do. The only airport in town was across the river and the only other airport around is five towns over."
Jade shrugged in response to Erica's statement, "So we adapt, and we live here."
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Theo drove up the driveway while listening to the radio, tapping the wheel with one hand as she cut the engine and just sat there for a few minutes, the radio still relaying the news.
"The previously unknown bomber, now revealed as Dr. Dred, has recently dropped more Z-12 bombs on 3 more cities. New York, still overcome by Z-12 infected, have recently evacuated neighboring cities with the hope of avoiding more casualties-"
"Ugh, never anything new," She climbed out of the truck, idly tapping and spinning the luminescent tarot card hanging from her rearview mirror, "At least he never hits the same city twice."
She walked past the other two vehicles parked in the driveway, a Lexus and another truck, and past the house they'd found shortly after the first bombing. She made her way through the orchard they'd planted two years ago; it was an orchard of hybrid trees Jade and Kyle had developed. They called them Gracebuds and they decorated the extent of the property, somehow repelling the Z-12 infected.
Theo picked a small branch off one of the Gracebuds, momentarily admiring the lavender glow of the pussywillow type buds. She tucked it into her denim jacket's breast pocket as she exited the orchard and crossed the street. She walked around several crushed and smoldering cop cars and followed the stone pathway to the cliff.
Jade and Erica were there, watching the fountain below; both had a small branch of Gracebud somewhere on their person. Erica had a piece tucked behind her ear and Jade twirled hers in her hand.
"Did you get the supplies?" Erica asked.
Theo nodded, "Kyle and Steph should be unloading them now."
Erica nodded and turned back to watch the fountain. Jade was sitting on the edge, her legs dangling and her head tilted, as if deep in thought. Theo stepped up behind her and sighed as she saw several officers fighting off infected.
"Do you think they'll ever catch Dr. Dred?" She asked idly.
Erica nodded, "They will. Just give it time."
"It's been three years, Erica, how much longer will it take?"
"Two years, five months, a week and three days," Jade corrected, "Besides, the damage has already been done."
Erica nodded again, "Even if they manage to find Dr. Dred, this," She gestured to the scene below, "…won't stop. A bite will spread the infection and we're back where we started."
"We just need to keep doing what we have been," Jade added, "Survive…and live for those who can't."
Erica shrugged, "If you wanna get all deep about it, sure. Anyway, I'm getting hungry, so I'm going to make sure Steph doesn't destroy my kitchen."
"But Kyle and the others are with her," Theo said.
Jade stood, "I barely trust them alone in the house, Theo. Besides, I want to have something edible for dinner."
"Oh, edible food is always good," Theo replied as she followed Erica.
"Yep," Jade wiped the grass from the seat of her jeans while taking one last look at the fountain. Then she turned and followed her friends across the street and into the orchard.
Erica walked beside her, "What are you thinking, Jade?"
She glanced at Erica, catching a glimpse of two dot shaped scars, "Ever wonder why it scarred?"
She didn't need to clarify, they'd both thought of that life changing day often enough, "Every time I see it," Erica replied, "And I thank whatever's watching us from above that I wasn't infected."
"Me too," Jade paused, "It would've sucked to have had to kill you."
"Oh? And what makes you think you could've killed me?" Erica challenged, "I could've bitten you before you killed me."
"Cannibalism creeps you out, zombie-fied or not, you wouldn't have bit me."
"Wanna bet?"
"Bet what?"
There was a pause as Erica thought on it, "I bet you half the candy in your stash that I can bite you before you reach the house."
Jade thought about it, then nodded, "And if I win I get two of the chocolate bars from the stash you have hidden in your closet."
Erica went to nod but paused as something struck her as odd, "Wait, how do you know where I keep my stash?"
"Um…" Shifty-eyed, Jade tried to stall, "I don't…?"
"So that's where my chocolate has been disappearing to!"
Jade spoke quickly, "I don't know what you're talking about," and then ran like the hounds of hell were after her. Which, in such a case, might not have been that far off.
She sped past Theo, making her spin in place, then jumped over the hood of the Lexus before hitting the ground running. If she was going to get caught stealing from Erica's stash, she was at least going to put up some resistance.
Theo spun again as Erica whizzed by her then stumbled as she tried to regain her equilibrium. Sighing, she shook her head, "And so another day passes, and not much changes," She gave a small smile.
Theo strolled slowly through the rest of the orchard with a smile on her face and joined the others at the front window as Erica and Jade fought in the front yard.
Kyle smiled, "The only thing that'd make this better is mud…"
Steph shook her head, "Some things will never change," She turned to Theo, "Popcorn?"
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-TheEcho-of-VioletRose