Fanfic: Zombies, Zombies, ALWAYS ZOMBIES! 🧟 Ep. 2: Stragglers

Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Magic Kid. Enjoy!

Welcome back to ZOMBIES, ZOMBIES, ALWAYS ZOMBIES! First, I would like to thank you all for reading: THANK YOU FOR READING! If you didn’t read the last episode, I suggest that you go back and read it right here. Now, let’s continue this adventure!

(Mwah ha ha ha haa! They have no idea what’s coming!)

My brother behind me: You know, we can still read it even if you put your words in parentheses!

Oh.

…

*Contemplating life choices*

…

Well, enjoy!

ZOMBIES, ZOMBIES, ALWAYS ZOMBIES!

A Zomberry Series

Episode Two: Stragglers

Clumsy Bird hears the noise, whips around, and hits the stick against something orange. A giant carrot? No, it was a carrot costume! And the actor in it shouts out in surprise and pain.

Jazzy Hawk

OW!

Clumsy Bird 

Oh, sorry!

Jazzy Hawk

What’d you do that for?

Jazzy Hawk looks annoyed and rubs his bruised shoulder. 

Clumsy Bird

I thought you were one of those zombies!

Jazzy Hawk

Uh, no. I’m a carrot.

Clumsy Bird

Oh, you don’t know!— there are real zombies roaming outside right now!

Jazzy Hawk

Riiiiiight, where is everyone?

He clearly thinks that Clumsy Bird is delusional, and speaks in a tone which one would use to someone who took an unfortunate blow to the head.

Clumsy Bird

As I have said before, they are zombies now. Well, most of them.

Jazzy Hawk

Okay, you can cut the joke now. Anyway, I need to go do my lines, I come up right at the bridge of this song.

Jazzy Hawk walks out onto the stage and reads his lines, completely oblivious to the empty stage.

Jazzy Hawk

Muah ha ha ha ha! All of us carrots will rule the world and turn all of you farmers into our zombie servants! Prepare to— Where is everyone?

Clumsy Bird walks out onto the stage, looking amused at how long it took for Jazzy Hawk to notice the empty stage, littered with popcorn and empty smoothie cups.

Clumsy Bird

All zombies. Feel free to freak out now.

Jazzy Hawk leans against the stage wall, shocked, and looks into the empty theater seats.

Clumsy Bird

No, don’t do that, that’s depressing! Come on, let’s see if anyone else didn’t become a zombie.

Jazzy Hawk

I memorized those lines for NO REASON! NOO!

Clumsy Bird

Bro, that’s the last thing to be freaking out about, and if you’re not going to try to find someone, then I’ll leave YOU to be ZOMBIE FOOD, and go find another survivor, because I’m sure that there are a few somewhere.

Clumsy Bird walks down off the stage and towards the theater exit.

Jazzy Hawk

Wait up!

Jazzy Hawk runs after Clumsy Bird. Clumsy Bird rolls her eyes.

Clumsy Bird

Okay, let’s look around outside.

Jazzy Hawk looks out of the window by the door.

Jazzy Hawk

WAIT! Don’t go outside! There’s a TON of zombies!

Clumsy Bird quickly looks out of the window. To her surprise, the streets are coated in a sea of indigo zombies roaming everywhere.

Clumsy Bird

Woah, there are a lot of them!

Jazzy Hawk

I’m staying here.

Clumsy Bird

Yeah, me too.

They continue to look at the zombies for a moment, and then Clumsy Bird decides to break the silence.

Clumsy Bird

I’ll go lock all the doors and check for zombie stragglers. Wanna help?

Jazzy Hawk

Sure.

Clumsy Bird

I’ll go check backstage and in the seats if you check up at the reception.

Jazzy Hawk

Okay, let me just get rid of this carrot.

Clumsy Bird goes to search backstage while Jazzy Hawk begins to walk up to the reception, and takes off the carrot part of his costume and puts it in a bin.

 He steps one step after another, while the old floor boards creak and the music for the play that never happened continues. 

The music is eerie and slow, going in and out of volume in an unsettling way. And then, as Jazzy Hawk turns into the ticket office, the music gets quieter and louder.

Jazzy Hawk is now scared, and calls out his frustration that even though there is a zombie apocalypse, someone forgot to turn off the music.

Jazzy Hawk

Come on! Is the music really necessary?

Yes it is.

Jazzy Hawk looks up by the desk–nothing, it doesn’t look like anyone’s there. But there is a blueberry smoothie cup that is knocked over, slowly dripping indigo onto the floor.

Drip, drip, drip, drip, drip.

The chair by the desk is overturned and there are papers eerily scattered all over the floor. The music, slightly muffled, pounds low ominous beats.

Drip, drip, drip, drip, drip.

Groan.

Jazzy Hawk jumps in the air. 

Behind him is  a blue zombie with eyes looking in the opposite direction.

Jazzy Hawk

Woah!

Zombie

Meh.

Jazzy Hawk doesn’t know what to do! There is a zombie right there, and its eyes are so scary! He decides to run, but just as he is about to take off (and for some reason he was starting to get light-headed) the zombie pounces.

Zombie

BLEAH!

Jazzy Hawk

ACK! GO AWAY!

Jazzy Hawk tries to run away. The music on the speakers, still playing, become quicker and go up several octaves. Jazzy Hawk escapes from the clutches of the zombie and he runs, the zombie in close pursuit down past the desk, past the theater chairs. The zombie is fast and isn’t getting tired.

Jazzy Hawk

HE-help!

Jazzy Hawk himself is very tired, but he keeps running around, in and out of the chairs, weaving and maneuvering, trying to confuse the zombie, but his attempts are fruitless.

It takes Jazzy Hawk a while to realize that the scary music has finished, because at that very moment it seems very fitting to have been playing. The suspenseful notes are still humming in the back of his head.

Jazzy Hawk

D-don’t zombies EVER stop running?

Suddenly, a loud, piercing ringing fills the empty audience seats, so startlingly loud that Jazzy Hawk stops to cover his ears. It sounds much smoother and sharper than nails on a chalkboard.

Fortunately, the zombie stops too, and is very upset at the noise.

Zombie

MEEHHH! MEH! MEEE!

Jazzy Hawk doesn’t hear the footsteps coming over to him, doesn’t hear the words, but two people, who have their hands over their ears as well, are coming over to him, trying to talk but remaining unheard.

 One of the Poptropicans is Clumsy Bird.

 The other is a guy with a baggy blue sweatshirt and glasses, with headphones. Jazzy Hawk reckons that he is one of the sound booth people.

Clumsy points to the backstage area access door (which is a nearly soundproof area). Jazzy Hawk nods and they walk towards the door.

Now, the three of them are talking backstage. Clumsy Bird is comfortably perched on a crate of tools, Jazzy Hawk is leaning against the wall, and the new guy (who I’m gonna remain unnamed until the next episode just to mess with ya 😜) is pacing.

Jazzy Hawk

Thanks for doing the noise thing.

New Guy

Yeah! I mean— I’m not used to seeing zombies, so I hope the ringing was okay—It’s still out there, so I don’t know how much more time we’ll have here. I estimate around 2.575 hours!

The new guy fidgets with an old Rubik’s cube, unconsciously moving all the white cubes on one side of the cube.

Clumsy Bird

Yeah, it worked great!

Jazzy Hawk

Wait— we only have 2 point something hours left to make backstage safe?

New Guy

I think so.

Clumsy Bird hops off the crate.

Clumsy Bird

Well, let’s go!

Jazzy Hawk

Wait—what happens if we don’t do it in time?

New Guy

Well, first the ringing will stop, then the zombie will look for us, and by then the other zombies might find a way to break into the windows.

Clumsy Bird

Okay! Can we stop chatting and start working?

They all nod in agreement and board up the windows backstage (all six of them), enough so light can still get in, but blocked off enough so the zombies can’t. They nail and find boards, rushing and tripping.

One and a half hour to go.

They block off the backstage and the stage from the theater chairs, the ringing still piercing. But the zombie slowly moves closer and closer to an unblocked way that they forget to cover.

Thirty minutes.

The zombie creeps closer and closer still. One step and another through the ringing.

The new guy rushes around and around trying to make sure that their structure is secure, and checking that they cover everything.

Ten minutes.

Jazzy Hawk hears the thumping sounds as the zombies beat on the windows, but he puts on a brave face and piles crates up against a door, where most of the zombies are.

Five minutes.

Clumsy Bird checks that they can still go in and out of the building through a door, but locks it when she hears the zombies creep closer.

Jazzy Hawk

Why aren’t they just ATTACKING already? This is freaking me out!

New Guy

I don’t know! I think that they were investigating us or something, and now they’re going to attack.

One minute.

The zombie stuck in the ringing is now far too close to the unprotected spot, moving at a slow but steady pace.

Thirty seconds.

Jazzy Hawk is pacing their (almost) safe room.

Twenty.

Clumsy Bird is chewing her fingernails, looking at the windows.

Ten

The new guy looks nervously out at the crowd of zombies growing larger and larger still. He’s fidgeting with his Rubik’s cube still, hoping that he did the math right.

Nine— but as we all know…

Eight— estimations are not always exact…

Seven— The new guy’s calculations were close…

Six— But not close enough.

Five!

Four!

Three—

Clumsy Bird

Oh, no!

TO BE CONTINUED IN EPISODE THREE

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Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Magic Kid. If you did, you might also enjoy their Pop Quiz: Which Pop Character Are You? post.

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