Young Writers Society

Connery gaped at his body. His beautiful body, so tragically inflicted with this disease and also made to be among the undead without his consent. The ghost, that wretched being, so selfishly overtook his beautiful form much like the virus that turned the lovely Katherine into the foul-mouthed creature she was now.

Connery now looked upon his body with disgust, for he knew it was not himself in control of it.

"Get out of my body at once!" he demanded, "You are a disease. A virus that overtakes the free will of others." He gestured at the night walking soul-consumer to his left, "You are no better than the infection that stole from her her humanity! You are a self-righteous cur and you will face the consequences when the reaper comes for your soul!"

The fanged girl's face had twisted into a look of such fury, and her eyes had become like wildfires in their brightness, Connery thought for certain if she had been gifted the ability to burn those on whom her gaze landed, he would be thoroughly alight with her flame. It was his shame that he could not look her in the eye. The light of them was simply too blinding. That was fully and entirely the only reason he couldn't meet her gaze with a challenge of his own.

The girl looked at his body, "Do me a favor," the venom in her voice was more lethal than any poison found in nature, "walk his body through a landfill."

Connery could only stare at her, aghast, his mouth agape. How could she say such a nasty thing?

He was so shocked he could no even respond.

Steve glanced between the group assembled.

"Maybe we should all take a step back and focus on figuring out how to get-"

"Take that back," Brian interrupted. For a moment, Steve wondered if the comment was directed at him. It was only when the tone - and the direction he was looking in - registered that Steve realized Brian was talking to the ghost not a single person present seemed to like.

The room turned a shade darker.

It wasn't by much. The room didn't have any light source besides the window, but it was just enough for the more trained eyes present to pick up on it.

Steve and Alex exchanged a look.

"Brian-" Alex started, heading over to their friend and putting a hand on his shoulder.

Brian kept staring at the ghost behind his mask.

"He doesn't know what he's talking about," he said, his voice low and dangerous. The room turned another shade darker. Any darker, and the difference in light would definitely become noticeable to everyone else - if it hadn't already. "I can't stand hearing those insults, and I can't stand the way he thinks he's better than everyone else. He needs to shut up."

The room almost went too dark, but then there was a moaning noise from outside.

Light flooded back into the room.

Turning his attention to the windows looking out into the street, Brian stormed away from both Alex, Steve and the irritating ghost.

Brian glanced back at the group assembled.

"I found some more zombies," he said, his voice betraying just a little bit of childish satisfaction.

Jerry listened to the continued bickering between the two people, the transparent guy, and the girl with fangs. What was it with those two? Where Jerry was from, discipline and loyalty were everything. And they were what Jerry understood. He realized that those two needed some of the discipline part.

Not that the other two guys were innocent as well. They were arguing too, but at least they weren't insulting each other.

"Okay you two! I've had quite enough." He pointed his gun at all of them. "From now on, if you guys keep being a bunch of numbskulls, I will shoot you. Arguing leads to disorder, and disorder leads to failure. Unacceptable."

However, the scratching on the door and the moaning from outside made him turn around and point his gun toward the door instead.

"Now, tell me about these things. You call them "zombies," but what are zombies exactly?"

Syl looked at the girl, "Gladly," was the only word he spoke to her before turning around and fixing Connery with a glare to kill. If only for a moment. He moved towards the newcomer, who definitely had some sort of military background. Syl had already decided he disliked him, but he had a gun. and there were mortals among them.

Brian turned his attention to Jerry.

"There's nothing wrong with disorder," he quietly said, narrowing his eyes at Jerry behind his mask - even when he knew the man couldn't see what he was doing. "And I don't like when people order me around-"

He was suddenly jerked back from the window by Alex and Steve; each had grabbed one arm and tugged him back. Alex had grabbed onto his infected arm, notably, but he hadn't really felt it.

"Brian," Steve hissed, "now isn't the time to be getting into arguments."

"But they're all so annoying-"

"Lives are at risk, Brian," Alex interrupted. "We could get infected. The girl you keep defending can. Even the people you don't like can get hurt. You have to remember our limitations."

Brian glanced between the two he had been arguing with, only to relax his posture and wiggle free of their grip. He was the strongest out of them, after all.

"Okay," he said. "I won't get into any more arguments. Right now, anyways."

He looked back at Jerry.

"Zombies are reanimated corpses of the deceased,", Brian explained. A zombie moaned - possibly in agreement - outside of the building. Thankfully, it seemed like their hatred of doors hadn't been tampered with.

...Not that Brian was actually worried about the zombies. That would imply they were a threat. He was just happy they were working the way they normally did.

"They like eating people, sometimes, but it's not like they can help it," he said. He gestured up at his head. "Their brains rot out when they're brought back to life. And when they bite people, they spread the magic that made them undead in the first place. It's also not their intention, but it just...happens."

"We don't know how long an infection takes to spread," Steve admitted. "There is a cure, but I don't think we can find it here. The best thing you can do right now is avoid getting bit."

Alex glanced around the room.

"How many of them are there?" she asked.

Brian thought for a moment.

"Five," he said. He looked over at her with childish excitement and straightened a little. "Are you going to come up with one of your plans?"

Alex gave a tiny smile. "I'm trying to."

Her gaze fell on the possessed zombie.

"...I have an idea," she said. "We have a zombie right now. If we distract the other zombies, we could sneak away and avoid any confrontation."

"They try to eat you? And they turn you into them?" said Jerry. "Okay... and they're complete wimps it seems. This should be easy, as long as we don't get bitten. We don't need a plan. Well, other than shoot their faces off, but that's easy enough." He then looked at Brian, noticing the mask. "What's the mask for?"

Connery was too busy being a whiney little thespian in the corner, ranting about 'his beautiful body' and a great deal of highly insulting things regarding Kate to realize what was going on with the rest of the group, and Kate, personally, was fine with that. She just wished those were reapers outside instead of the rotting dead.

She tilted her head, listening. "Those fuckers have heartbeats," she said, her face splitting in a grin. This was going to be fun.

She drew her cutlass, "I'd be thrilled to play distraction," she said, still grinning, "The rest of you can fuck off through some backdoor or something, m'kay." It wasn't a question. Most everyone here was alive, and therefore, probably not immune to the worst fast-spreading skin disease Kate had ever seen. The glitter lovers would probably do something stupid, anyway. Not that Kate cared. She was just in the mood to cut people up. Since Connery was unavailable, this would have to do.

"I can play distraction as well," Syl spoke, "I'm much more dead then the majority of you, and two people may be better than one at distracting the zombies."

Besides, he thought I can aim my attacks much more purposefully like this.

"Why don't you guys head out another way, I'm sure the guy with the gun can protect you all if necessary." Syl doubted it, but the only person he had a positive opinion of here was the girl, and he knew his chances of survival would be slightly higher with a partner who knew what they were doing.

Brian wasn't really sure how he was supposed to reply to that question, but thankfully he didn't have to think about it. Alex beat him to answering it.

"It covers up more skin," she said. "Brian's immune system isn't good. If he got bit, the infection would spread faster than most people."

Brian grinned underneath his mask. He didn't like the implication of him being weak, but that was a good lie on Alex's part. He'd have to praise her for it later. As it was, the infection was only just starting to move past his arm.

Steve gave a concerned look in the girl's direction.

"Are you sure you want to be a distraction?" he asked. "You're not already a zombie, so it would infect you if you got bit."