Young Writers Society

Jerry was getting extremely tired of the transparent guy and the cutlass lady constantly going for each other's throats. It wasn't very helpful, and, in his opinion, they were acting quite childish.

"You two need to be separated," he said to them.

After he said that, he decided to prepare for when more zombies came. He left the classroom everybody was in and set to work.

He looked around the school for a hammer and nails. Fortunately, there were some in a storage closet. He began nailing boards in areas that zombies might fit through. After he finished with that, he found some lead pipes in a wall. Using his flaming cyber-sword that he turned to max heat, he melted them flat and carved three of the pipes into crude swords, after which he sharpened them. After they had finished cooling, he gave two of the heavy weapons to Steve and Alex.

"Take these, since you guys are weaponless," he said. "And where's the masked guy? This last one's for him."

Syl was seriously about to murder Jerry. He hated the guy, annoying and much too focused on "order" to be of much use in his opinion. Though he supposed the weapons he made were useful. Eli wouldn't be happy with him if he disposed of someone for being annoying. He turned away and walked back out to the front steps of the building. Anyone who asked what he was doing would get something along the lines of playing lookout.

He searched around and found some rope, as much as he could, as well as a horribly dirty bandana. He created as much noise as physically possible until he attracted a zombie. Sadly only one, and trapped the dumb fucker in a window well. then jumped in the one next to it, and unpossessed Sir Connery Mcfuckwad's body and possessed the new zombie's.

He climbed out of the well and grabbed the dirty Bandana from earlier. Stepped next to the window well and tied it around Prince Bigotry's face. He tied up his limbs and made the bandana much more secure (He had found some Super Glue inside.)

He picked Connery up and brought him inside, tossing the zombified corpse on the ground with a thud.

"Woe is me that I must suffer the unjust wrath of the nightwalking creature of blood and fang!" Connery cried once the foul-mouthed girl was out of earshot. He wasn't afraid of her, of course. He was already dead! Felled in a worthy battle by one quite like her brethren.

He straightened out his person, adjusting his puffed sleeves and floating a bit straighter, all the while dispelling the little creeping voice at the back of his mind. What if Katherine is right? What if what she says are not simply fabrications and lies? What if her fury is not, indeed, so unjustified? Nonsense thoughts! Best ignore them lest they manage to trick him.

He floated out of the room, in a direction other than the one Katherine had gone in. Again, not because he was afraid of her.

It was in this way, this randomized trajectory, that he came across another. That fellow in the mask who had taken quite the disliking to Connery, even though he had done nothing but speak the truth.

"I claimed this classroom already!" Connery protested, even though he hadn't even been in this classroom before a few seconds ago. "Go on your way, I have no desire to be in your-" something was wrong with mask man.

Steve and Alex glanced at each other.

"I think he went to go use the bathroom," Alex finally offered. The two of them took the swords that Jerry had made. The weight felt unfamiliar in Steve's hands; it was different than the swords he was used to wielding. But a sword was the weapon he was most comfortable with, so he was glad for the protection.

Alex, on the other hand, wasn't really one for actual weapons - Steve was all too reminded of it when he saw how she was staring down at her sword.


Right before the ghost arrived, Brian was leaning up against the wall of the classroom.

He was holding the ruler tightly in his hand. He was gripping it so hard that its sharper, metallic side was starting to dig past his glove and into the palm of his hand. He didn't feel it, though. He didn't really feel anything. The moment he had started to lose feeling in the rest of his body - which had happened faster than he had expected - he had left the room. He couldn't risk turning into a zombie when Steve and Alex were right there.

So he was alone. The infection was spreading. He wondered if he could speed it up somehow, but also had a sneaking suspicion that speeding it up wasn't the way to deal with a virus that made you somewhat dead but not entirely.

Brian groaned.

He was so bored. When was this going to take affect? He couldn't have that much long left.

But then he realized how much his groan sounded like an actual zombie's groan.

His already rotting face split into a grin underneath his mask.

He let out a few more groans for good measure, comically holding his arms out like all of the zombies that roamed his world. Not this place - these zombies didn't seem to have the same interest in the half-limp arms out approach.

He was in the middle of imitating a fully-turned zombie when the ghost walked in the room - his arms held out in front of him while he wandered aimlessly around it. His ruler had been forgotten over on the windowsill.

Brian, who hated the ghost on principle, and liked to think that his brother would somehow know if he scared one of his creations, took advantage of the break in conversation and let out a very low groan.

Jerry was walking along looking for Brian when he heard a loud groan. He stopped and listened. He heard it again, and realized: There was a zombie in the building! He ran back to the main group.

"Attention everybody! I heard a zombie. It's in the building, so I'll find it and kill it, while you all stay here. Kate, you can come if you want, but everybody else don't wander off," he said.

Kate's eyes flashed a dangerous shade the moment what's-his-face with the big gun and the habit of brooding off to the side spoke to her. Calculating. Fucking brute.

"Listen here," she growled, taking a menacing step into his personal space, "Do I look like some kind of glitter-licking coward who you can just order around at your leisure? Hm? Fuck off. I'm not your boot-kissing lackey. If you want one of those go back to whatever warzone you climbed out of and find someone dumber than you are to boss around."



Connery shrieked, "Zombie!" With great vigor and agility, he turned and bolted for the door. He grabbed for the knob but his hand went right through it. He glanced, panicking, back at the zombie as he tried desperately to grab hold of piece of shined metal on which his existence balanced. In his fever, though, he stumbled through the door and faceplanted in the hallway, the door slicing him right through his middle. He clambered to his feet and rushed back in the direction they'd left the others, shouting warnings all the while to the others (except Kate, who was definitely not the target of his warnings).

In his rush, he somehow managed to rush through the man with the very large gun, hardly taking notice of the angry blood-sipper in his face. "Z-zombie!" Connery said, stuttering, not out of fear, but because of his sheer rush to get the word out.

Syl scrunched his face into a grimace. Fuck that orders bullshit. He stormed past Jerry, stopping just before entering the door, turning back to him with his hand on the doorknob.

"I can handle myself just fine."

He opened the door to a bit of a surprise, Brian was there, and as far as Syl could tell. He was the only being there.

"Did you uh... take care of it?"

Steve and Alex exchanged panicked glances.

The zombie that Connery had seen and Jerry had heard had to be Brian. He was probably turning right now, but both of them knew there was a very high possibility that Brian had just been goofing around near Connery. He didn't exactly like him, and he had a tendency to come up with more...spiteful pranks.

"Are you sure it was a zombie-" Steve started.

"If there's a zombie, we're coming-" Alex began.

The two both fell silent and looked at each other again.

Apparently, they hadn't been on the same wavelength.

"If there's a zombie," Alex repeated - it was too hard to deny that a zombie was there - while looking Jerry right in the eye, "you'll want us there, too. We were defenseless earlier, but we have weapons now. And Steve and I actually deal with zombies on a regular basis, so we're more qualified to go than anyone else here."

"...We could even go on our own," Steve helpfully suggested. "It's just a little zombie. We can handle it."

Alex nodded.

Even if Jerry argued, the argument would give them the time they needed. They just had to hope that it would be enough.


Brian's hands immediately fell back down to his side.

"Took care of what?" he asked, tilting his head ever so slightly to the side and staring at Syl in confusion. At least, that was what he was supposed to say. He was almost entirely sure those were the words that he had wanted to come out of his mouth.

But what actually came out of his mouth was a series of groans.

He raised a hand up and touched his throat, head still tilted a little to the side.

"This isn't funny," he said, groaning again and throwing his arms up in exasperation. "I'm supposed to decide when I'm going to groan! If I keep groaning whenever I'm talking, it's just going to seem like I'm...a..."

...a zombie.

His eyes widened behind his mask.

He wasn't worried about Connery or Syl, but he was worried about Jerry and potentially Kate. If Jerry found out that Steve and Alex had known the entire time that Brian had been bitten, then wouldn't he punish them? His whole thing was order - that's what Brian's brother would have done. He never had been fond of his creations.

Brian darted out of the room, skidding past Syl and rushing back towards where Steve and Alex were. Connery would have already gotten there, and he doubted Connery would keep quiet about who had turned into a zombie.

He went sliding into the room.

Then he went to where Alex and Steve where, looking them over to make sure neither one of them had injuries. It seemed like they were okay - and like they had gotten swords.

"Nice swords," Brian commented, pointing at them. "Where can I get one?"

The words came out as a series of enthusiastic groaning.

Steve let out a groan of defeat, and Alex just sighed.

Jerry stared at Brian, as a stench hit him. It suddenly all made sense with the mask and the awkward conversation with lame excuses he just heard. They were covering for an infected person! And to think that he had thought that they were the most responsible out of all of the idiots he was with! Now he just learned that they weren't.

"Okay, everybody stand back and let me deal with this," said Jerry, pulling out his cyber-sword. He activated it, and the flames danced along the retractable blade.

Syl looked at Jerry.

"My normal form is infected as well, buddy, and I'm clearly not uninfected in this form either."

He approached brian, holding his arm to the mask. If he was truly gone, he'd have some reaction, right? Besides, he wouldn't be doing what he was. Pointing, and throwing his hands up. When nothing happened he turned back to Jerry.

"Still has control over himself. Just speaks in groans. Back down, soldier." The last parts are spoken mockingly. He rolls his eyes, and moves over to Connery's zombie, reapplying some more super glue to the edges of the bandana as he groans and thrashes.

As soon as Jerry drew his sword, Steve and Alex made a move for in front of Brian. They let Syl interact with Brian before completely blocking him off from Jerry - swords raised to protect against any attacks.

Not like Brian needed protecting. They were the humans who could actually get seriously hurt by a flaming sword.

"It's not what you think," Steve said. "He'll be alright, eventually-"

Enough was enough. Brian wasn't going to let Alex and Steve protect him right now. He slipped through the little space between them and pushed both of them back. The two stumbled, but quickly regained their balance - which was just the time Brian needed to get a good spot in front of them.

They couldn't deny it anymore, so he grabbed the mask and pulled it up.

He couldn't see his face, obviously, but he had a sneaking suspicion it was seriously decaying. But more, importantly, they could finally see his eyes.

Or what should have been normal eyes, if he was actually one of his or his brother's creations. In the place where eyeballs normally were nestled, he had glowing white light.

In case that didn't get the point across, he made a pickax out of darkness and held it defensively in his hand - ready to use it if Jerry tried hurting either one of his friends.

Connery - who was not afraid of any undead thing that he happened across - was far, far back from the rest of the group.

Just kill it! was the phrase that he thought, considered, then screamed. "Just kill it already!" he added, helpfully.

"Shut the fuck up, Connery," growled the voice of the disgraced and deceased, m'lady Katherine, who had a sword in her hand but was far to inept to use it on anything deserving. Clearly she thought of this flesh-eating monster as one of her own. After all, eating people was their shared activity and she had just as much intelligence in her being as any of the groaning hoards.

Connery kept this to himself, though. She'd already screamed at him plenty for the evening.

Jerry stared at the strange thing that he beheld with his eyes. A zombie with fake eyes? This was strange. And that pick-axe looked deadly.

"You're going down, zombie," he said, refusing to let himself feel at least a little scared by Brian's frightful appearance. He turned up the heat on his sword all the way, and then, since he had been trained to take orders ever since he was a little kid, he instinctively charged and attacked Brian when Connery told him to.

Everything happened too quickly.

Connery yelled for someone to kill Brian. Kate tried to protest it - or shut him up. Steve wasn't really sure. And then Jerry, instead of actually assessing the situation, attacked Brian with his sword on its highest setting.

Instincts kicked in.

Steve went to take a step forward, sword ready to block Jerry's attack if he could somehow get in the way of it. But he never got remotely close to where he needed to be.

Because Alex pulled him back.

Brian didn't move. He even dropped his pick ax to the ground, even though it disappeared the moment it made impact.

"Alex, let go," Steve desperately said. "Brian's going to get hurt-"

The attack landed.

"He's not like us," Alex reminded him. "I think he wants us to stay back."

Brian glanced, groaning out a reply that Steve had a sneaking suspicion was just him calling him stupid - or commenting on how he shouldn't have doubted him.

Even though he had been hit by Jerry's sword, Brian hadn't even flinched. He just stood exactly where he was, looking down at the blade with what was almost childlike curiosity.

Almost immediately, the wound began to heal.

And the skin that grew back was regular uninfected skin.

"I thought you were better than him," Brian said, tilting his head as he kept staring down at the weapon. Steve was too shocked by what must have Brian's last minute plan to realize to really register he wasn't groaning anymore. Brian, apparently, hadn't noticed it either. "You can't kill a god with a sword."