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Chapter Text

A groan came from the mishappened curled lump buried under a pink camouflaged comforter, a petite fingered hand sliding out to slap the annoying bop-top alarm clock that had begun a loving rotation of loud beeping. Once again, the room was quiet outside the rustle of cloth and a sudden scratching followed by a whine. Another groan and a creak of bedsprings followed the soft sound of bare feet hitting a wooden floor as what was once a lump under blankets transformed into a eighteen-year-old young woman with long wavy mahogany hair and fuchsia pink tips.

Standing, the petite but muscle defined young woman stretched, her shoulders making popping noises followed by her jaw as a yawn forced it’s way past her lips. The sound of scratching persisted, another whine pulling the sleep-ridden youth towards her bedroom door.

“Calm down Marco I-“ another yawn interrupted her morning tirade as she grabbed the round silver handle of her bedroom door. “I’m coming.”

Looking down, Alora Jones stared into the rich almost black eyes of her two-year-old melanocytic American Doberman, Marco-Polo. Reaching out, she stroked his smooth black coat along his head, neck, and back before giving him a soft smile.

“Come on you mongrel, let me use the restroom then I’ll take you out.” Giving one last scratch behind his ears and giving him the ‘wait’ command, Alora turned towards the bathroom to complete her morning routine before getting ready.

With a fresh face, fresh breath, and an empty bladder, Alora slipped her house slippers on and clicked Marco’s leash in place before stepping out into the backyard so he could do his business.

The leash wasn’t necessary. In the two years of training the Doberman, having gotten Marco as a birthday gift (which she was sure she only got through intensive whining), Alora had come to train him perfectly under her command. Especially after her incident during cheer camp.

Alora stared at Marco as he ran the perimeter of the backyard on his retractable leash, her hand unconsciously tightening on the hard plastic handle.

During her summer before sophomore year, shortly after her sixteenth birthday, Alora had gone away to cheer camp like any other summer since elementary school. She had trained her form in gymnastics, dance, and ribbons from an early age so it was only natural to take up cheerleading as well – great university marks her father always said. Accomplishment was always a positive in her parents’ eyes.

She had also been on the debate team at that time as well as yearbook committee. Her afterschool activities split well between her friends Natalie Callaway and Zoe Parker, and she had been happy with where her life had been going. Till the drop of her life. Till the coma of nightmares.

After she had woken from a three-day coma, Alora’s outlook on the world had become drastically different. It could have been trauma from the incident, either physical or mental. A sudden lack of self-confidence or fear of heights. No one other than Alora understood why she suddenly quit the cheersquad, refocused her life around exercise, archery, and training her dobberman.

But why had she quit? That was easy. Waking up in a hospital room to find a younger version of Grover Jones holding her hand and calling her Orie over and over had really put into prospective that Alora Jones, formally Ally Martin, had really died that day on the archery field. Worse – a newbie had shot her through with a bloody practice arrow.
Blinking into the face of Grover Jones from a two-season canceled zombie apocalypse show that ended in a shitty cliffhanger was not something to rejoice in. Finding out you were his twin sister and another child of a morbidly intelligent but deranged Norman Henry Jones who spent his time destroying lives and experimenting on humans? She’d vomited on the nurse’s brand-new hundred-and-fifty-dollar leather Dankso clogs.

After that, Ally had taken to somehow ensuring the survival of herself as well as saving as many possible deaths as she could without coming off like a bat-shit crazy mental patient raving about the end of the world. It wasn’t the end of the world after all – just the end of Kent Valley. And she refused to be stuck with the worse version of the breakfast club on doomsday.

Pulling out of her thoughts, Ally clicked her tongue against the rough of her mouth before telling Marco to come. Taking him back into the house, she gave him a treat for good behavior then filled his dish with his morning serving.

At this time, the Jones parents were already off to work, leaving it to their children to take responsibility for their own breakfast and transportation to Kent High School. Not that it bothered Ally any. Not having to look at the devil’s face over her oatmeal made the brown sugar and apple chunks taste all the sweeter.

Mary came down the stairs with a spring in her step as she bee-lined it for the coffee pot Ally had started before walking Marco out the back door and Grover stumbled into the kitchen soon after.

“Life substance now please,” Grover moaned as he plopped down at he breakfast table, his eyes scrunched up from lack of cleaning his face after waking up and pointed in the direction of Mary making a cup of ambrosia.

“If you’d just go to bed when Ally said to, you wouldn’t be so rundown Grover.” Mary pulled her fresh cup of coffee to her lips, blowing a little before taking a sip. She winced as the hot liquid attempted to burn her taste buds away then quickly made way to the freezer for a little ice.

“Seriously, I probably don’t even need this cup of miracles, I slept so well.” A plip noise of ice dropping into scolding coffee followed up her comment with a slight moan of joy when Mary took another sip.

“Orie doesn’t control everything about my life like yours, Mary,” Grover groused, getting up to make his own cup of coffee seeing his sisters ignoring his plight.

“If I did, I’d be the one exhausted,” Ally spoke up from the oatmeal on the stove, prepping three bowls with fresh apple chucks waiting to be downed in brown sugary porridge.
Catching Grover’s movement out of the corner of her eye, Ally ducked as a sugar cube was hurled in her direction.

“That’s how we get ants, Grover. Ants! Tiny little swarms of six-legged pests!” Mary scolded, pointing a callused finger from violin practices at her older brother.

“I’m sure they can’t be as bad as sisters,” Grover grumbled under his breath before joining said sisters at the table to eat.

“So have you thought any further on what dad suggested?” Grover spoke up, looking towards Ally with curiosity.

“About an archery club? I have and I don’t plan to start one. I still don’t understand why dad is pushing for it, I already formed a garden club. I know I took an interest over sophomore year in different things, but I enjoy practicing archery alone or with people I trust. Just because the Keller Foundation decided to put in an archery field during Junior year doesn’t mean I need to make another club my last year there.” Ally took a sip of her own coffee, happy with the cooled down but still warm temperature.

“Application marks,” Mary piped up between bites of her oatmeal. “Seriously mom and dad are the weirdest parents. They push us to have amazing grades and try new things but aren’t strict about it at all. It’s like they know we will excel and just want us to have the best on our transcripts.”

“It’s called bragging rights, Mare,” Grover stood up, taking his empty bowl to the sink. “Three talented kids compared to all their co-workers.”

“What co-workers? They work the line down at the factory,” Mary grumbled, following Grover’s example with her bowl, only rinsing it out as well.

Grover shrugged. Honestly it had been the only thing he could come up with. That and maybe they didn’t want their kids stuck working in a factory – even if the pay was pretty good.

Ally stood up from her spot and went to the sink with her dishes, giving them all a wash and placing them on the drying wrack before heading back to her room to get dressed for the day. The truth was, even she wasn’t sure about their parent’s motives.

From the show, Mrs. Jones was only mentioned on context while Mr. Jones was discovered to be the world’s biggest asshat who used his own son as an experiment. If this was anything to go by, there was a possibility all the Jones children were experiments in their own way and Norman Henry Jones was hoping to prove he had created the perfect specimens of human biology.

Opening her closet door, Ally stared for a moment of what was inside, remembering what had filled it before when she had just been Alora Jones with no knowledge of the future events that could bring about the end of the world. Back then her clothing had been any typical preppy teen. Dresses, skirts, yoga pants – honestly there had been a lot of ruffles and lace.

Now? Her style took on a punkish appeal drifting between a biker babe, a soldier, and punk rock star. Even her hair had changed after she woke up, trimming it down a tad and giving it an emo chick layered cut with colored tips. Her father had not been pleased and her mother had pinched her mouth into a tight smile. But Ally had simply promised that change of expression broadened an open mind and aided in inspiration.

Her argument had been simple; To become her very best self she had to evolve. Evolution came in stages of mental, emotional, and physical growth. Teenage trends were the route to a maturing adulthood by being able to cast off the old for the improvement of the new.

Her father ate that bullshit up with a smile. Her mother still fussed over her hair.

Marco nudged the back of her knee, alerting Ally she needed to hurry up and get changed. Deciding on a pair of cargo pants the fit snuggly around her hips but gave her legs full coverage and allowed for flexibility, Ally paired it with a long sleeve skin-tight but breathable black V-neck thermal and her usual black leather jacket. She topped it with her black military grade steel toe boots and put her long hair up in a high ponytail, letting the shorter layers that could be called bangs frame her face.

A simple swipe of black eyeliner with toned down fuchsia glitter, and clear lip gloss later, Ally was taking the steps two at a time to the front door. Grabbing her day to day backpack and archery case, she turned to Marco and gave him a kiss on the head.

“Hurry up!” Grover shouted from his jeep, slamming his hand on his horn to get Ally’s attention while Mary sat in the passenger side seat texting a friend from orchestra.

Rolling her eyes, Ally gave Marco the command to behave and wait for her to come home after school before she locked the house and walked her way over to the jeep.

“Seriously, Grover, chill! It’s Friday, not the end of the world,” Ally grumbled getting into the backseat with her things. ‘Though tomorrow is a very different story,’ she internally grimaced.

“Grover wants to see Violet Adams give a smack down.” Mary glanced over her shoulder at her big sister with a ‘duh’ expression. It was no secret in their trio that their brother was madly deeply in hormonal handcuffs for the spitfire delinquent.

“She caught her boyfriend cheating on her with Tressa Mitt. I heard it was full-on tonsil tag,” Mary continued while turning back to text on her phone.

“So, she’s single then,” Ally wiggled her eyebrows into the rearview mirror at her twin.

A blush bled over Grover’s face as he tried to avoid his sister’s stare. Though he was a naturally confident guy, Grover had always tended to follow his younger twin’s lead when it came to choosing friends and staying away from people. When he had first told Ally about Violet, Ally had told him to be careful.

Ally knew she couldn’t stop Grover’s feelings for Violet, but she was determined to make sure he didn’t end up sad and pathetic over her if Zane came in and swooped the woman off her feet later.

It may be considered meddling as well…but Violet wasn’t the only one Ally had given Grover advice about. Point in case was Barrett McIntyre waiting patiently by his motorbike for Grover to pull the jeep into it’s usual spot.

Barrett had become a millionaire over the creating and sell of an application. Rumor was he had made it with a friend then screwed said friend out of the rewards. The truth was far from it. Barrett had made the app with the assistance of one of his little brothers. To protect his little brother, he paid a fellow classmate to pretend to be partners with him. After the sell of the application, said ‘friend’ moved away and Barrett took the downfall in the eyes of his peers.

From the show’s standpoint, that was never really explained, but Ally had wanted to ensure the best chances of survival. Call her cynical or callus, but she knew by having a healthy friendship with Barrett, it would also ensure his cooperation with them at the end of times.

So she had sacrificed Grover to the clutches of who became his best friend while also providing anonymous cryptic files through Grover to Barrett, ensuring that the giant-brained potential psychopath thought Grover was actively going against the devil to expose Keller’s secrets. Barrett never asked Grover outright and Grover had no clue the information transfer was happening, so it worked seamlessly.

“Hey Barry,” Mary said as she walked by, her phone still in front of her face until she got to her friends, pocketing the devise.

Barry just shook his head at the younger Jones sibling before watching as Grover climbed out to the jeep – noting once again how his best friend appeared to be a towering wall a muscled giant. Barry, himself, was rather tall, but his frame was lanky due to refusal of physical exercise beyond that which kept his body up to healthy standard.

As Ally climbed out the backseat, he shifted to watch her navigate herself. As someone who always stood outside of his peer group, Barrett had always been observant. When Alora Jones changed from spunky preppy cheerleader to sassy punk-emo “just call me Ally” he had begun to take a higher notice of her on his radar.

Grover becoming his best friend had been an unexpected benefit to his cause, but Ally had become a personal fascination of the female discovery. Out of all the females present in his grade, only a few registered with Barrett as potential partners. Zoe Parker was his personal choice for her genetic disposition and her nurturing care of her four-year-old little brothers. She’d make a good mother and he was sure his intelligent level could make up for her average mental strength.

However, she was entangled with a Neanderthal on the basketball team. Still, he was going to try and persuade her away.

Ally met Barrett’s calculating gaze with one of her own, before a ghost of a smile tugged at the corners of her lips. Pulling out her backpack and slinging it over one shoulder while carrying her archery case by the handle, she gave Barrett a slight nod of a hello before turning away towards the high school where Natalie and Zoe were no doubt waiting on her.

Grover watched his twin and best friend for a moment before clasping Barry on the shoulder. “Still chasing Zoe?”

“Of course. I still believe she should be with a superior specimen, however testosterone boosted mindless soldiers would be a waste.” Barrett replied, watching as Ally joined up with her two best friends, noting how Natalie engulfed her with a hug while Zoe gave her a simple greeting.

Grover observed Barry a moment, having grown used to the less than normal way Barrett analyzed and responded to everything. “Right, and when she eventually stops being a snow queen to anyone beneath cheer and sports, I’m sure she will warm up to you.”

“She will when she realizes the best option for a healthy future and the betterment of her offspring.”

Grover shook his head and tried not to laugh as he clapped Barry on the back again, causing his friend to nudge forward a step. Finally unable to hold back, Grover broke into a laugh as Barry glared at him.

“Come on, I wanted to see Tressa Mitt get stomped today.”

“Ah yes, the odd choice of your own future partner. Violet Adams is trouble.” Barrett snorted.

“Have you met Orie? My sister is the biggest brand of trouble, Barry. I think I can handle Violet.” Grover grinned.

Zoe was practically wrapped around LaShawn’s waist afterschool as their small group of friends sat around the archery field. They had agreed to spend the afternoon together and Ally wanted to get some practice in. Honestly everyone had seen how cheer camp before sophomore year made a change in Ally. Still, despite who she used to be, who she was seemed to keep their group together.

She had helped Zoe and Natalie rebel, making sure no one got caught when they stole some alcohol. Helped Natalie with her weight challenge and plundering confidence due to her mom as well as chased off a creep who wanted to spike Natalie's drink at a summer party. Given Noodle the confidence to admit he was bi-sexual and had a crush on Natalie. Got Barrett McIntyre, the biggest know-it all ever, a friend. And finally managed to get Mary to hit the bulls-eye on the archery target.

Okay that last one wasn’t really important, but as Zoe watched the siblings hug in celebration, she couldn’t help the creeping disappointment that worked its way into her chest. They had all remained friends, even when Zoe thought for sure a year back that Natalie was going to make her take the fall if they got caught stealing from the supermarket before Ally saved the day with screaming smoke detectors.

Yet, ever since Ally quit cheerleading and moved on to archery practice, even before the school got an archery field, Zoe had felt the ever-growing separation between her childhood friends. Natalie was taking on a more direct approach to becoming school president this year to get her mom off her back. Ally seemed distracted or disinterested most the time in going out or throwing a get-together party. Instead, her preppy best friend was more determined to work out, play in the paintball course, and learn an irrational set of skills for a senior in high school.

Zoe felt like both her friends were maturing faster than her, leaving her behind. As she watched them, she even felt that somehow Natalie and Ally had a special bond between them that she simply acted as a third wheel too, which was ridiculous.

“Ouch!” Zoe turned her head to glare at her boyfriend in semi-real irritation. “Did you just pinch me?”

LaShawn gave her that goofy grin she loved so much. “Not much there to pinch, baby. You’re flat and curvy in all the right places.”

Wrapping her arms around his neck, Zoe leaned in to quickly peck his lips. “And if you want to keep touching all those right places, you’d do well to keep the pinching to yourself.”

With a mischievous smile, LaShawn reached up and pinched her right nipple through her sport’s bra causing it to harden. A quiet whimper curled in Zoe’s throat as her fingers tugged into his hair. “Seems like you like it when I pinch you,” LaShawn whispered into her ear before hoisting her up closer to his body and giving her firm bottom a squeeze.

“Get a room,” Ally laughed, having put up her archery case for the day and turning to see Zoe and LaShawn ten seconds from making babies. “I’ve got a little sister watching you two degenerates.”

Mary flushed red at her sister’s words and Noodle couldn’t help but crack a joke about practice makes perfect. Natalie play-punched her boyfriend in the arm before kissing him to make it feel better when he faked crying.

“Vibe killer,” LaShawn growled out as Zoe climbed off his lap, turning his annoyed expression onto the offender.

Ally just smirked back, absolutely uncaring about having bothered the two. Sure, these had been Alora’s old friends, but when Ally had woken up from her coma and realized what was going on, she instantly wanted to beat her head against a wall. Natalie and Noodle, she could handle – they had very loyal personalities. But LaShawn and Zoe?

LaShawn was a loyal friend, but his flaw was Zoe. Zoe was selfish despite her willingness to self-sacrifice for her brothers. She lacked real courage, showing strength only to spite who she felt people perceived her as less. Zoe was a burden unless provoked and Ally didn’t have the patience to spoon feed her into action. Though she managed to spare Zoe the worry of the twins by talking Zoe’s mom into taking the twins to stay with their grandmother in Seattle for a week, she didn’t see Zoe as an actual friend. When things went south, she didn’t trust Zoe to come through or make smart choices.

If Zoe made a choice, LaShawn would follow it as long as it didn’t put Zoe in danger. That left LaShawn as a possible hindrance in any plan the group tried to work out when the time came. She knew the two would die for one another, but they wouldn’t die for the group. Their alienation from those she wanted to protect didn’t bother her. Not when she had people she wanted to see live through an incoming zombie apocalypse.

“I hear under the bleachers is the place to go – just watch out for gum,” Ally smarted back, hoisting her backpack over her shoulder and grabbing her archery case. “I’ll see you guys later; I need to check on the garden club room.”

“I’m coming too! I want to make sure the hydraulic system doesn’t need a filter change.” Natalie kissed Noodle good-bye and followed the Jones sisters back into the high school.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to how everything seems to change as the years pass,” Noodle mumbled, watching them leave before glancing over at his best friend.

“That was deep coming from you bro,” LaShawn raised an eyebrow at his usual class clown best friend.

“I can be deep!” Noodle mock-glared before giving a thrust of his hips and breaking into laughter.

“I’ll be sure to send a gift basket when Natalie lets you get that far.” LaShawn laughed, ducking as both Zoe and Noodle reached out to play-smack him.

Grover finally left the computer labs where he had been hanging out with Barry after watching Violet Adams spank Tressa Mitt all over the gym. A quick text from Ally told him she was done with her afterschool activities and ready to head home for dinner. Passing the principal’s office on his way out, he heard Mr. Princeton telling Violet she had Saturday detention. Raising an eyebrow and feeling the goofy grin he usually got fall on his face, Grover decided how best to spend his Saturday while Mary had Orchestra practice and Ally tended to the garden club, she had formed that back in sophomore year before the archery field was built.

Chapter Text

Ally stared at her phone for thirty minutes before her alarm was even set to go off. Today was the day. Doomsday for Kent Valley. Since sophomore year she had done her best to prep for this day. From the Parker twins to the five little monsters of house McIntyre, she had managed to ensure those deaths were off her soon to be bloodstained hands by getting them out of town early.

She joined debate and fought for better use of lunch funds her sophomore year. This put the needs of allergies, anemia, diabetes, and hyperglycemia into the eyes of Kent Valley Council who then took it up with the Kelly Corporation. That granted a remodel of Kent cafeteria and provided more storage for food stock. Then there was starting the gardening club, which included having Barry help create a hydraulic water cleaning system to allow them a continued cycle of cleaned water and grown food.

Junior year she had left an anonymous complaint about the fallout shelter for the school, demanding an upkeep check on supplies. Two weeks’ worth of survival needs for two-hundred and fifty people were restocked, including biohazard gear. Not even a fourth of that in the student population was going to survive to make use of it, but Ally wouldn’t complain. She’d try to stop as many as she could from making fools of themselves, but idiots didn’t tend to survive natural disasters let alone zombie outbreaks.

This time around, though, Ally would push as hard as she could on possible contamination and quarantine of any students who wondered back in infected after being told not to go outside. There was no way she planned to let them eat Coach in the fallout shelter or be able to form a mob. Wherever they ended up quarantined, she would make sure they wouldn’t be getting back up.

From there…reinforcement of the school, closing down sections that were a) not useful, and b) suffered probable contamination that then contained zombies. At some point zombie disposal would have to happen, however in the first days getting a group of young adults barely out of their teen years to think as a group would take up most of the time.
Ally closed her eyes as her alarm rang, her hand reaching out to turn it off only to hear it knock to the floor, Marco’s tell-tale playful growl and claws clicking against the hardwood alerting her to her current company. Staring at her Doberman, Ally felt her chest clench a moment.

Marco would be another difference from all the preparation she had taken. When she had just been Alora, she had wanted a dog due to the trend. She had hoped for a small bag dog from her parents. It had been a miracle really that her father had mixed up the dog breed she had originally asked for. When Ally came to find she was the owner of a Doberman puppy, she knew Marco would be a key to keeping everyone alive. ‘Freaks’ as they called zombies in this world didn’t attack animals and the infection didn’t affect them. Humans were the only host and threat.

She trained him to follow command perfectly, including keeping quiet when she needed him to and showing her silent signs of danger. She knew using sound, Marco could lead the dead away when they needed him to and return unharmed to her. He was a secret asset, and if anyone could ever figure it all out when it came to how everything Ally did led up to this moment, it would probably be Barrett. Luckily, he was up Zoe’s ass, so Ally wasn’t worried.

“Today is going to be different,” Ally muttered, scratching behind Marco’s ears as she took herself to the bathroom to shower and get ready.

In her mind, she ran through her checklist of things to take along to the high school. First and foremost she knew she couldn’t take anything that would mark as odd or telling that she knew she may not be returning back their home ever again. That was why for the last couple years she had slowly settled with filling her locker with things that held any meaning to her. It had become a project of sorts and one she had encouraged her friends to go along with her.

Instead, she had a doomsday bag packed with things she could rationalize for having. A bag of seeds for garden club, extra bottles of water for archery practice in case she got thirsty or someone else did, a military grade field first aid bag – her dad was a worrywart. He wasn’t, but no one outside her siblings would even know that. Everything she had in her doomsday bag she could explain away, and when it came to her archery case no explanation was needed.

To make room, she had even gotten Marco a baggage vest so that he could help carry things too – mainly he was carrying dog treats and various medications Ally had not so legally obtained from the vet’s office a town away. She had already stashed dog food in the archery locker room under the excuse that Marco came to school with her on the weekends sometimes incase she stayed late. He was her gentle companion who walked her home.

In the night she had taken it upon herself to repack Grover and Mary’s backpacks for better survival. They might be a bit confused when they got into them, but at least they would be more prepared. She held zero regrets for throwing out Grover’s week-old gym socks for thermal knee socks that would keep him dry, warm, and add a layer of protection to zombie bites. Nor did she think Mary would mind the ankle and forearm guards she stuffed into the bottom of her pack. Seriously, of all the people to lose to a fucking zombie bite right off the bat, it had been sweet Mary.

Well, it had been Coach, but he’d become a buffet, not a slowly deteriorating loveable baby sister.

Moving back into her room, towel wrapped around her body for modesty, Ally pulled out the outfit she had planned from the very beginning for this day. It was one she hadn’t worn before.

Matching pair of black undergarments soon found themselves in place; a pair of boy shorts styled underwear and a matching black sports bra. There was a couple more pairs of underwear buried in her bag as well as an underwire regular black bra. Following the underwear, skintight breathable yoga pants made the first layer of defense on her legs. Then a tactical military grade pair of black cargo pants that snuggly fit her hips and allowed for flexible movement.

A black tank top slipped over her head, hugging her stomach and curves followed by a second long-sleeved finger-looped black shirt with a built-in hood that hung fittingly down her body stopping a few inches above her upper thighs. Fingerless leather gloves with metal plating sewn in across the tops of her hands and thick padding along the palms came next going over the finger-loops along the ends of her sleeves and locking around the wrists to keep her sleeves in place from being pulled up.

Finally, her faithful leather jacket was added to the outfit paired with her combat boots, hair up in a high ponytail like the day before. Staring in her room body length mirror, she nodded in approval that she was dressed for the end of the world. Here’s to hoping the clothes she had been stashing in the drama club and lost in found for the last three years would provide everyone else with warrior chic.

Shouldering her backpack, grabbing her archery case, and calling Marco to follow, Ally made her way down the stairs to the kitchen. Glancing around she could see their mother had already driven Mary to orchestra practice and the devil had gone back to his lair in hell. That left Grover, whom she knew would be planning to crash Saturday detention for a chance to flirt with Violet Adams.

Luckily that didn’t start for another hour so her brother was probably just rising up from his beauty sleep to get ready.

“Quick tour around the back yard, Marco, then you’re coming with me to where the village idiots gather,” Ally put her stuff down by the front door then clicked Marco’s retractable leash in place along his baggage vest and led him back through the house to the kitchen and out the back door.

“Better get it all,” Ally teased her dog, trying to keep her spirits up. “We probably won’t be coming back here.” The last part she whispered, feeling an unreasonable chill along her well-covered skin, the hair on the back of her neck standing up in anticipation for the nightmare that was to come in just a couple hours.

Grover came downstairs to find the front door wide open, the sound of his jeep’s engine running, and his backpack missing. Not that he had planned to take his backpack with him, but Grover had thought that Ally would have made her own way to the school, walking with Marco like she usually did. He hadn’t even planned to take the jeep today, having pulled his peddle bike out of the garage.

Sighing, he wished his sister would have chosen any other day to do this. They both knew he had no reason to be at the school on a Saturday which is why their mom drove Mary and Ally had always walked with Marco-Polo. How the hell was he gonna play off crashing detention to flirt with Violet with his twin?

“Groovy-Grover hurry up!” Ally hollered from the passenger side of the jeep, her knee nervously bouncing while Marco laid still in the back seat, ears alert and twitching, sensing her mood.

“Chill out Orie, its not the end of the world if we’re a little late,” Grover called back to his sister as he locked up the house and pulled open the driver side door.

“That’s a good one, Groov. Really funny. Some would even say famous last words.” Near the end there, Grover noticed Ally had started growing quiet, as if talking to herself moreso than to him.

“How’d you even know I was gonna go to the school today, anyways Orie? And how’d you get my keys?” Grover adjusted the review mirror, noticing his sister’s shadow of a dog resting along his backseat.

“Violet Adams got Saturday detention and I have a set of keys to the jeep too, I just never use mine. It was a joint birthday present remember?” Ally smirked at him, knowing well she had needled him right into his sore spot.

‘Feign ignorance’ was the only thought Grover could come up with in the moment. With a very unconvincing voice he muttered out an “Oh? Really?” and a “I didn’t know she had detention.” Followed up with a “I promised to help Barry in the computer lab today.”

Yes, it was all very convincing. He was sure Ally hadn’t seen through his bullshit at all. Not.

“Poor Barry, looks like he’ll be missing that help since you plan to crash a Saturday detention – which is mental by the way, no one crashes a Saturday detention, they skip them.”
Grover watched as Ally fiddled with the window control, bringing the window down then back up into place over and over again.

“Cut that out, you’ll mess up the electronics,” Grover grunted, putting the window locks on and rolling his sister’s window up for good measure.
“Spoils sport,” Ally groaned leaning back in her seat as she turned her head to stare out the closed window.

When they managed to make it to school, Ally slipped her backpack over each shoulder, grabbed her archery case and Marco’s leash. From here she planned to go hide out in the archery field lockers and wait for the announcement of a code 9 leak. Then she’d break out the dramatics and look for her siblings.

Grover, on the other hand, headed towards the detention room. There he walked in to find Diesel Turner, Lyle Morrison, and Violet Adams sitting around as Coach called out names.

Heading towards the Coach, Grover glanced over to see Violet ignoring everyone while on her phone. He gave a goofy smile her way just as Coach cleared his throat.

“You are?”

“Grover Jones, sir.”

“Grover Jones, huh,” Coach flipped through his clipboard before looking up to Grover and giving him an obvious ‘are you fucking with me’ expression. “You’re not in my Saturday detention Grover Jones.”

“I, ah, I know but…” Grover nodded towards Violet and gave the Coach a pleading look.

Coach raised an eyebrow and silently chuckled. “You don’t got a chance kid.”

“I’ll never know if I don’t try,” Grover countered with a confident smile.

“Good luck,” Coach responded quietly before using his teacher’s voice to yell at Grover to sit the hell down. “Now I want you to put your phones away and sit here in silence. I’ll be back in a minute.”

Exiting the room, Coach left to get what he had planned for Saturday detention. Feeling a little generous, he even took his time in doing so to give Grover a shot at scoring a date – or a punch to the face.

Meanwhile Ally set up her stuff in the archery locker-room. Luckily it was built on the first floor close to the stairwell that led down to the fallout shelter. Crouching down, she hooked Marco up to keep him safe in a nook she had found that way she could come get him later when he was less likely to get riled up when everyone was arguing and in hysterics. Stroking his coat, she nuzzled into his neck and gave him affirmations on what a good boy he was to sit and wait for her to come back.

Standing up, Ally chewed her lip in worry. She had planned to simply stay here till it all went down, but she couldn’t help but worry. What if something went wrong? What if because he drove his jeep here, Grover tried to head home rather than into the high school? What if Mary got trapped in the heard of panicked teenagers and got hurt or trapped outside?

“Damn it all to best laid plans and all that shit,” Ally growled out as she headed for the detention room. She arrived in the doorway just in time for Violet to make a point that dead mom jokes weren’t funny.

“Alora Jones, for some reason has the office simply failed to put your family name on my detention list?” Coach’s voice came from behind her.

“You know what Coach; I think they did. Must have been a mistype on Secretary Michel’s part. She’s getting senile with her old age,” Ally sniped back in a joking manner, knowing Coach could take it.

“Get in there with your brother, Jones. You troublesome twins.” Coach growled out in mock-angry voice giving her a wink before pushing her forward towards where Violet sat with her phone in hand still.

“Gonna loose that phone Adams,” Coach barked at her before placing four buckets on the floor. “Alright degenerates get up and grab a bucket. This is hard time, not candyland!”

Everyone got up and grabbed a bucket other than Ally, she simply trailed behind her brother singing ‘sugar sugar lookin’ so fly’ under her breath. Glancing up, she watched as Diesel spun around to glare at her brother. Instead he glanced over and caught her eyes, holding them as a smirk touched his lips and he walked backwards a few more steps before pivoting around.

“Please don’t flirt with the guy who lands detention for busting up other students,” Grover grumbled, watching the exchange between Diesel and his sister.

“I don’t know, Grover, there’s something pretty hot about a guy who acts like a prickly cactus on the outside and has a cuddly teddy bear center,” Ally couldn’t help but dig into her brother watching the giant protective teddy bear delinquent walk faster in front of him.

“He is about as cuddly as Barry is…In fact you might be better off with Barry,” Grover muttered. “Why did you have to crash detention?”

“Why did you?” Ally snipped back, her fingers flexing as anxiety began to build up over what was about to happen.

“You know why,” Grover growled out under his breath as Coach began to give instructions.

“Am I interrupting? No? Then get to scrapping gum off the bleachers with Ms. Adams, Grover Jones,” Coach barked out.

“When are we done scrapping the gum off the bleachers?” Violet asked, her eyes flickering around all the teens.

“You’re done when all the gum is scraped off,” Coach mockingly smiled at her. “Move it!”

Ally watched as everyone began to disperse and counted down in her head. ‘3…2…1’

“Code nine, containment breach immanent, aerial contamination warning, remain indoors. Close all windows and doors. Aerial contamination warning, remain indoors.”

The warning continued to play in the background as people began to argue why they would hold a drill on a Saturday.

“Coach, it isn’t a drill. Keller is on fire,” Mary rushed up, running all the way from orchestra. Luckily, she wasn’t winded with all the running Mary had started making her do in jr. high.

“Alright, inside everyone. Head to the fallout shelter under the school in an orderly fashion. Don’t rush don’t push!” Coach yelled over the panicking crowd of students.

Quickly, they made a run for the school doors, students nearly piling on top of one another to get into the shelter. Again Coach ordered for a calm and orderly march into the school depths.

As she came up to the basement door leading down to the fallout shelter, Ally thought about splitting off from everyone and to get to Marco where she had left him. Just as she was turning to do so, Lyle Morrison caught one of her hands and tugged her down the stairs between Diesel and himself.

“No one wants to see Elmo cry if you’re missing,” Lyle joked, eying Ally the same time Diesel slid his hand onto her lower back, stopping just above where inappropriate would be and nudging her forward.

“Can’t have him without his goldfish,” Diesel quipped, hoping to get a rise out of Ally and distract himself from his claustrophobia closing in.

“Pretty sure that’s Violet, and she’s like six people ahead followed by Elmo and Mary.” Ally played into their banter, oddly fine with one of them holding her hand while the other led her down the stairs. She knew why Diesel had claustrophobia and knew being down here was a struggle for him.

“Ah shit, I can’t remember anything outside of that damn fish when it comes to the red furball,” Lyle complained having tried to make another joke.

“He sure does love his crayons,” Ally grinned, winking at Diesel while giving Lyle’s hand a squeeze.

Both of them broke out into laughter as other classmates turned to give them odd looks just as they stepped foot into the fallout shelter. Immediately Grover was there, prying his sister away from the two and herding her over to where Mary sat. He even walked her right by her own friends in doing so, checking her over for any injury.

“I’m fine, Groov, knock it off,” Ally batted her twin’s hands away from her face.

“Alora, where is Marco?” Grover spoke up, staring at his sister waiting for her meltdown over her dog.

“He’s safe, Grover, I put him in the archery locker room. I was going to go to him, but your detention buddies were afraid you’d birth fish eggs if I wasn’t down here with your hysterics.”

Diesel and Lyle both cracked up at the same time having inched past Ally’s friends to be close but not too close to where the Jones siblings were standing.

“Funny, Orie, real funny,” Grover grouched as his face light up pink.

“Hey man, what you starin’ at?” LaShawn’s voice broke Ally’s concentration and she turned to find Barry looking at Zoe before turning his attention to LaShawn.

“Nothing.”

“Hey ain’t you that kid who-“ Noodle let out a grunt as Natalie elbowed him to shut up after seeing Ally’s face, which had turned irritated as words started to come out of Noodle’s mouth.

However, LaShawn had no issue in filling in the blanks. “Made a million dollars selling an app your buddy helped you build then cut him out. That’s messed up son.”

“It’s been settled, and I never said it was a million dollars.” Barry spoke up, a glint of irritation entering his eyes.

“Oh so less than a million. Still a scumbag,” LaShawn kept going, opening his mouth to say more when Ally’s fist slammed into the side of his face.

“If all you can do is be a prick just cause your jealous and therefore show zero trust in your girlfriend not to walk his way, shut the fuck up. The world’s ending, get with the program or get left behind!”

Everyone stopped dead, even Violet who had been moments from saying something about alpha male bullshit. Instead they all stared at Ally like she had grown a second head.

“What the fuck-“ Zoe started in on Ally just as a shockwave from another explosion hit the school, causing cellphones to start dinging everywhere.

“My mom said there was an explosion down at the plant!” One girl called out.

LaShawn’s phone dinged, and he checked it really quick. “Yeah, my dad said a fire has spread to two buildings.”

As more and more voices picked up in the fallout, panic began to take over the herd mentality of the group. Diesel could feel the walls closing in on him and more and more people panicked around him. Finally, he gave himself a good shake just as another explosion could be heard and took off towards the stairs.

“Diesel!” Coach shouted just as Ally also slipped away from the mass hysteria trailing after Diesel with Lyle on her heels.

“Alora, Lyle!” Coach shouted at the two as they disappeared up the stairs.

Soon Mary and Grover were looking at one another, trying to decide what to do. They didn’t know if they should chase after Ally now or wait. There was always the possibility that she was grabbing Marco to bring down.

Herd mentality won out in the end though as they followed everyone including Coach to the front entrance was where Diesel was standing, staring out down into the valley.

A quick look told the Jones siblings their sister wasn’t peaking out at the scenery, and they headed to the archery locker rooms where they found Ally and Lyle with Marco, petting him down to soothe him over.

“We should stay in here for a few more minutes,” Ally said as another explosion rocked the building.

“Everyone is gathering by the school entrance waiting for the rescue services-“ Grover began when Barry’s voice cut him off from behind.

“They won’t becoming right away, not until they get any of the fires under control. It could take days or weeks for anyone to make their way here to the school. This is partially due to us not being at risk right this minute. Statistically as Coach said earlier in the shelter, there are enough supplies to see who is left make it till help arrives.”

“What do you mean whose left?” Mary spoke up, looking at Barry.

“He means the smart people who didn’t run outside to try and get home.” Ally said quietly, her eyes glancing to Lyle who looked right back at her.

“What?” He raised an eyebrow.

“You’re staying?” Ally asked in return, the question so strongly in her eyes, Lyle felt his life depended on how he answered.

“Yeah, I may be a delinquent but I’m not stupid enough to dare an air contamination leak.” He felt compelled to stay, watching the way Ally’s shoulders suddenly sagged as if a weight had been pulled off of them.

“I take it Zoe and LaShawn are staying if you left the pack of people,” Grover glanced to his best friend.

“Zoe doesn’t have a reason to leave. Her mother and twin brothers are in Seattle. She mentioned that she owes you one for that Ally.” Barry narrowed his eyes on Ally a moment, his calculating gaze met with small smirk but blank expression.

“Guess I owe you too, since my family went on that trip you talked my brother into wanting.” Barry continued to stare at Ally, looking over what she was wearing closely for the first time then over at her dog who had been safely leashed up in the locker room this whole time.

“Guess you do, spaz,” Ally shot back, one hand on her hip while the other made an I-told-you-so motion.

Lyle glared at Barry, not fully understanding what was happening between the giant nerd and Ally, only that for someone who owed someone, he sure as hell didn’t look grateful.

“Come on, lets check on Diesel and the others,” Lyle motioned with a head nod towards the door, reaching out at the same time and grabbing Ally’s hand as she let Marco off his lead and commanded him to follow.

With Lyle leading the way, the group fell into step to find Natalie arguing with her friend Addy about leaving the school. Already most of who had filtered in had vanished out into the toxic valley trying to find their families.

Ally looked to find a surprise waiting for her as a few others had decided to stay behind like Lyle. At least two basketball players on LaShawn and Noodle’s team chose to stay. A cheerleader huddled in one of their arms refusing to budge a single inch closer to the doors. A guy from Mary’s orchestra band also stayed behind, his eyes landing on her little sister immediately after their group rejoined at the front of the school.

It surprised both Grover and Ally as they watched Mary fling herself on the poor guy, smattering inexperienced kisses all over his face.

“Well now we know why she can’t put the phone down for five seconds.” Ally joked, watching them and feeling embarrassed for her little sister.

Grover just grunted until he caught sight of Violet Adams, a small flush lining his own cheeks happy to see she had stayed.

Coach looked around at the small number of students left under his care, rubbing his hand on the back of his neck. Just as he was about to give orders, another explosion shook the building and Zoe screamed pointing out the front doors.

Coach took one look at the cloud of strange rust-like dust about to descend upon them and reached out smacking a button near the front doors for contamination breach. Then he yelled for them to run and get away from the front side of the school.

Ally cocked her head in confusion at what had just happened, not remembering that scene in the show before. She paused as se stared at the front doors making a strange sucking pop noise as they sealed over with some kind of gel.

“Alora!” Coach yelled, snaping Ally out of her thoughts just as Diesel picked her up and threw her over his shoulder, bolting around the corner where the others had gone.

“Whoa! Buy a girl a drink before you go touching her fine booty!” Ally giggled, ogling Diesel’s own backside as she felt the muscles under his clothes move.

“I’ll find a vending machine later, princess,” Diesel grunted out, a little winded as he came to a stop by Lyle, though he didn’t seem close to putting her down yet.

“I’ll hold you to it,” Ally laughed, twisting her hips in Diesel’s grip until she had wiggled her body down to where she was facing him while he still refused to let her go.

“Get a room!” Zoe yelled from were she leaned against LaShawn.

“I heard the bleachers were a good place for that, but with this weather?” LaShawn added.

“Better take a rain check on that,” Noodle grinned.

“Noodle,” Natalie spoke up in a tone that implied they would be taking a rain check if he didn’t keep his mouth shut.

Ally simply gave Diesel a wink before turning her head to stick her tongue out at LaShawn.

“I call the teacher’s lounge. Dibs is now invoked bitches so find your own crash site!”

Just before Ally could wiggle the rest of the way off of Diesel, Grover wrapped his arms around her waist and yanked her off the delinquent before setting her on the ground with a look that promised a lecture.

“I’m as innocent as a newborn fawn, Groov. Like Marco when he was a wee puppy,” Ally opened her eyes wide as if to give Grover puppy eyes herself.

“Marco chewed up one of my game controllers and shit in my favorite pair of shoes when he was a puppy, Ally.”

Everyone burst into laughter as the dog in question came to lick the back of Ally’s hand.

“And such a good puppy he was, wasn’t he!” Ally spoke out, kneeling down to nuzzle Marco’s neck. “That would teach Grover to steal the last lemon freeze from the freezer, wouldn’t it?” She asked nobody as she gave Marco a hug.

“You have got to be kidding me…You put him up to that?” Grover started to point at Ally just as he was going to blow up into a full-on rant.

“Settle down all of you!” Coach’s voice boomed down the hall. “Everyone split up and try to find something that works and gets us news from outside. We need to find out what’s going on out there. In every room, there is a special button by the windows. If you see it, hit it. It places an air contamination coating along the windows to keep from letting anything in. The air filter system in the high school was upgraded last year so it should be good to withstand any form of chemical contamination.”

Ally blinked at the coach. That defiantly wasn’t in the show. But it made way more sense than a handful of people able to cover all the windows and doors to keep out the air contaminant. She’d take high tech gel over poorly constructed plastic.

“Ally let’s check the green house on the second floor,” Natalie spoke up, pulling Ally down a hallway and up some stairs. As they turned the corner to the stairs, Ally caught Diesel, Lyle, and Barry watching after her before the Coach got on their cases and sent them to their own destinations.

Once they got into the green room the garden club had taken over, Natalie immediately found the button by the windows and hit it, activating the gel coating on the outside. Afterwards, the girls went from room to room activating all the buttons on that floor, collapsing back in the green room into chairs as they stared at the plants growing around the room.

“At least the system Barry hooked up is still running,” Natalie noted.

“Well it is Barry, what do you expect? He’s a mad genius,” Ally shrugged.

“Ugh don’t say that anywhere around him. You’ll grow his ego.” Natalie huffed.

“Nah, admitting the truth won’t make him anymore a narcissist than he already is. Besides, there isn’t anything wrong with how Barry is.” Ally shrugged her shoulders leaning forward in her chair. “Think about it for one minute. Barry isn’t a typical teenager, a typical high school student. He’s already a millionaire and has the mind that could get him anywhere he wants in this world. Question is, why is he still here in Kent High where he’s just being held back and picked on?”

Natalie glanced away, her cheeks reddening at her own judgmental behavior.

“What Barry has in a sharp mind he lacks in proper human emotional expression and empathy.” Ally leaned back in her chair and looked up to the ceiling. “Barry isn’t a bad person, and he can stay calm under extreme conditions because his mind races that far ahead in trying to find proper solutions. He doesn’t panic because his mind doesn’t register the need to panic or feel distress until after a solution is presented and he can come back to the hysteria of the situation.”

Natalie stared at her best friend as Ally closed her eyes and stretched out her arms towards the ceiling. “You sure pay a lot of attention to Barrett, Ally. And here I wanted to grill you on Diesel and Lyle.”

Ally sat up in her chair and glared at Natalie. “What’s that supposed to mean? I’m just observant. Besides… I have nothing for you to grill me on. Barry is Grover’s best friend, and they spend time together. Though I’ve seen Diesel and Lyle from time to time and acknowledged them, today was a first for all the handsy stuff. Not that I minded I suppose,” Ally said wishfully at the end.

“Ally, you know you’re pretty, right? Seriously for a while with you and Noodle doing all that sneaking around whispering back in Junior year, I thought you guys were going to announce you were going out not preparing a grand gesture so Noodle could ask me.”

Ally snorted. She wasn’t an original character in this story. She didn’t have a fucking love interest to go gaa-gaa for. Natalie was supposed to have Diesel, but things changed at some point Junior year. At least Natalie wasn’t eight months pregnant at the end of the world.

“Sure, I’m pretty Natalie. But you forget, I’m also the weird girl now. Ever since that coma back in sophomore year I’ve become a different person, one that boys don’t ask to the movies or to prom. If anyone is looking my way now…its because the end of the fucking world.” Ally threw herself out of her chair and moved to check on some of the vegetables they had growing.

Natalie sighed and got up to help her.

Outside the door to the greenhouse Grover and Barry both stood still for a good several minutes. They had heard everything Ally had said to Natalie; from what she thought of Barry, and even the complete lack of confidence in herself there at the end.

Grover had never realized his sister was having a hard time. Ever since her coma, she had just pushed herself in a different direction. He though she was suffering from ptsd from the fall and just putting her focus into constructive activities. He never once thought to actually talk to Ally after her personality change, never thought to see is she was going through something she needed help with.

Ally had always been the stronger twin, the one who took the lead, made the friends, and stood up to their parents at home when she wanted something. After her coma, she was still that Ally, fighting on the debate team and going for her personal goals. Grover had never realized that Ally felt lost in her own skin, felt ostracized from the people around her.

Barry clenched his hands unknowingly into fists, the word stupid singing in his skull as he went over what Ally had said about him. He had been wrong. Very very wrong. He thought he was the perfect observer, that he could read everyone and break them down on a psychological level. But he had missed Ally.

She had just been another girl on his radar that had a radical change in her teen years due to a social incident. She seemed to come back from that in her own way despite her personality changes. He had seen her go all out when she practiced archery or worked in the greenhouse. He knew she could match him in a battle of wits with her street smarts versus his book smarts.

Listening to her talk about him, defend him, and break him down on a psychological level as though they were friends and they shared things with one another shocked him. They didn’t hang out unless she came around to get Grover from his house or he was hanging out at theirs. They didn’t really talk to one another. He had made a mistake. He had failed to see something important right under his nose.

However, a current end of the world scenario was playing out around them. Barry didn’t have time to look deeper on how he was feeling. He boxed it up inside to examine later and went back to focusing on the issue at hand, allowing feelings he understood to take hold and place him back into the routine of observing, calculating and deriving a solution that best fit his needs and survival.

Diesel and Lyle were searching around the school together, hitting the buttons by the windows and trying to get any television they came across to obtain a signal. After their fourth attempt, the two sat down to take a break, glancing up at one another for a while.

“So…” Lyle spoke first, unsure how to continue.

“Yeah,” Diesel replied, one of his knees beginning to bounce.

They had been friends since they were little kids, practically growing up with one another. As they got older, they knew there was something different with about them from other guys, but having the dads they did, they never acted on it. The one-time Diesel even mentioned it, his father had locked him in the basement for a whole weekend in the dark leading to his claustrophobia. Lyle had learned from his friend and didn’t even bother to open his mouth to his old man.

Still, it hadn’t stopped their dads from making sure to beat any sign of oddity out of the boys when they saw it leaving the two with anger problems and a bottomless pit of self-hatred. Skipping classes, beating up other guys, and getting into trouble became their way of life. The only way they could let themselves be thanks to their dads’ reactions.
Other kids avoided them like the plague unless they were delinquents looking for a fight like Dwight, or misfits and stoners who didn’t feel threatened by the two.

Honestly today was not the first time Ally Jones had been on their radar. They all grew up together in the valley. The Jones siblings were on the higher end of the wealth spectrum and until today, no one knew what their parents did. Hearing that their mother worked the line in the Keller factory seemed...less than reliable, but who knew what the hell Mr. Jones did.

The Jones twins were odd kids. For the longest time they were meek and quiet. They didn’t go out, and no one ever saw them in the park. In fact, they didn’t join the real world until middle school. There a change happened over half a year. Someone decided to use Grover as a punching bag.

Alright, Dwight had decided to use Grover as a punching bag. He was a jealous kid who didn’t like some weak momma’s boy beating him at anything, even when Grover had no idea at the time Tressa Mitt was drawing hearts around his name in her notebook.

It was the first time peppy happy Alora Jones had ever gotten mad. The sight of Dwight sitting on her brother, beating his face in during homeroom and sent a chilling expression to the girl’s face. It was almost like she had changed into another person. Diesel and Lyle both had that same class and sat in the back staring in shock as the skinny girl in a fluffy baby pink pastel dress decorated in little lambs dragged Dwight by his tiny mullet off of her brother, slammed him headfirst into a desk then proceeded to crawl on top of him and meet each punch he had dealt to her brother back to him.

When Grover came too and grabbed his twin up from under her arms, telling her to stop, it was the first time Alora Jones seemed to seize and end up hospitalized for several days.
While the Jones twins were out of school, Grover haven been pulled out along with his twin, Dwight had got the thrashing of a lifetime by his own old man. When he finally made it back to school, granted he had a cast on his left arm, no one dared to say a thing about what had happened. Even Diesel and Lyle had been told by their parents to keep their mouths shut over the incident. Diesel had been threatened with another weekend in the basement if he couldn’t and Lyle had been warned to that if it ever happened again and his dad didn’t hear him stepping in to help Grover Jones, he’d learn what breaking a belt over his backside really meant.

So despite being angry delinquents, neither Diesel nor Lyle were stupid. They skipped too much school for their grades to prove it, but they were both plenty smart, even capable of keeping up with Barry though they weren’t tech savvy like him.

Whatever was happening outside the school, whoever was out there? Well they were fucked if they didn’t stay inside. No matter what, anyone caught out in that rusty colored shitstorm was now a no-go. No one knew what went down in Keller factories. No one knew what was in the contamination.

But contamination or no, Diesel and Lyle still planned to do what they always did. Stick together and keep an eye on Jones siblings. Alora had changed sophomore year. Her change this time around had been a permanent one. Over the last three years of keeping an eye on her, both boys had grown a certain attachment to the little sassy go-getter. One they weren’t sure they’d ever feel for a fellow female classmate.

Chapter Text

Around four in the morning, Ally woke up to the sounds of banging. It was muffled at first, the rest of their group camped out on all the soft furniture they could squeeze into the teacher’s lounge – no one, but the Coach was willing to stay in the shelter – still sound asleep. Weary about what may be about to happen, Ally moved out of her scrunched up chair and left the room, quietly making her way to the front door.

Peering out, she noticed several silhouettes in the dark of the early morning leaning against the door knocking against the glass weakly. She closed her eyes and took a slow breath. This was the part she wasn’t looking to the most in her plan for survival. Either she would ostracize everyone by voting against letting the infected in and later have to kill them before they turned and ate the coach, or the vote splits and she ostracized any of the people who voted on the other side and she still has to kill them before they become zombies.

“Damned if I do, damned if I don’t.” Ally stepped up to the sealed and locked front doors, catching a few faces on the other side that looked back at her desperately. She felt her heart clench in her chest, the beginnings of tears form in the corners of her eyes.

“Go away,” she whispered softly, knowing they couldn’t hear her.

Ally knew this was coming and had thought she had worked through any emotional downside doing what she knew they had to do to survive. But standing there staring into the frightened eyes of Natalie's friend Abby, Ally knew they were all fucked. She couldn’t let them in, but she couldn’t send them away. There were thirteen other people she was going to call the school home with, she didn’t have the ability to make this choice for them even if it was the smart one.

Stepping away from the glass doors, Ally turned her back on those desperate faces and headed back to the teacher’s lounge to wake everyone up. After she had roused the students, Ally left to wake up the coach. She hoped no one did anything too stupid in the time it took her to do that.

“Coach,” Ally called entering the bunker, her hands trembling a bit in fear as the scene from the show replayed in her memories. She knew that wasn’t what she would find. They hadn’t let the infected in yet.

“Coach?” She called again, wondering just how heavy of a sleeper he was. The further she moved into the room, the more afraid she grew, the trembles in her hands moving along her arms. Suddenly there was noise behind her making her jump, her head spinning around only to catch sight of Marco who had trailed after her quiet as a mouse.

A sigh of relief left her lips as she reached down to pat the top of his head. “You scared me for a second bud,” Ally spoke out, a slight laugh from built up hysteria filtered past her lips.

Turning around, Ally half expected to find the Coach up and moving with how loud she was to her own ears. Instead, she moved further into the room, heading towards the last row of beds.

“Coach?” Ally crept to a darker area where the last bed seemed to be before the shelves stocked with supplies started. Frowning, she decided that if this was how heavy a sleeper the coach was, then he probably died before he even woke up to being eaten alive in the show.

Leaning over the dark mass laying in the bed, Ally reached out to shake it, her hand landing where a person’s shoulder should be. “Coach come on, there are kids at the entrance.”

“Ally?”

Ally’s back stiffened as the hair raised on the back of her neck at hearing the coach call her name…from behind her.

“Coach,” she choked out as the trembles she had before slammed full force along her body. Whatever was under her hand stirring and stretching.

She tried to think of everyone who had slept upstairs, everyone who had stayed in the teachers’ lounge. Only the coach had slept down here. She didn’t believe she missed any of their faces.

“Coach…” Ally licked her lips as she slowly pulled her hand from the moving bundle before her. Marco nudging her side as the fur along his back began to stand on end. “Who slept down here with you?”

“What? No one. Hell, I didn’t even make it through the night down here. Halfway through I crashed in the room next to the teacher’s lounge. The others stumbled on me and told me you’d come down to wake me up about the students outside. When you didn’t come back up and your dog bolted away from Abby to your side, I figured I’d-“

Marco began to growl low as Ally continued to slowly back away from the figure she had disturbed on the bunk bed. That growl turned into a full-on warning bark that Marco was prepared to attack.

“Coach,” Ally whispered as she took another step back.

“What’s wrong with-“Coach started as Ally screamed and Marco lunged at the school janitor who lumbered in her direction.

“Run!” Ally screamed again just as footsteps pounded towards the stairs leading to the fallout shelter.

“Ally!”

“Coach!”

Voices yelled down the stairwell as Ally flipped backwards over a bunk bed and Coach reached for her while Marco took the janitor down to the floor, viciously biting through the man’s neck until a sickening crack was heard.

“Oh fuck your dog! Dude your dog is fucking killing-“

Whose ever voice it was drowned out in someone else’s scream as the once janitor continued to fight against Marco even through his neck had clearly been broken and large amounts of blood pooled underneath him.

“Marco!” Ally screamed from the floor where she had tumbled, struggling to push herself up, her legs caught in some discarded plastic. “Damn it, Marco heel!”

At her command, the Doberman immediately backed off, moving slowly backwards to her side while still growling at the struggling janitor on the floor. She reached for him, feeling the familiarity of his fur to calm herself while the others pooled into the doorway.

Closing her eyes, she took a breath, smelling the coppery sent of blood and the smell of rotting trash along Marco’s fur. There she gathered herself for what seemed like hours but were only a matter of seconds before pushing it all away.

A strange look came over Ally’s face as she rose from her Doberman. Marco whined and nudged her, but she ignored him as she moved towards the janitor. Coach reached for her again but pulled his hand back halfway through when he watched her use one of the mattresses to spring her body forward towards the monster bleeding everywhere. Diesel, Lyle and Grover shouted her name while someone else vomited from nerves in the background.

It was all white noise to Ally in that moment. Everything had fallen away, and she seemed to hyperfocus on the only important detail in the room. The still moving threat on the floor.

Stepping up to the thrashing body of the janitor, Ally could see the work Marco put in to taking own the threat. He’d practically chewed through the neck and almost severed the head before she’d called him off. A quiet and chilling ‘Good boy’ came from her mouth before she lifted one of her steel-toed boots and brought down on the mutated zombie head of the school janitor.

A crack echoed through the room, but the janitor didn’t stop moving. Lifting her foot up again, Ally brought it down, another crack. On and on it felt like it went. A stomp of her foot, a loud crack in her ears. She didn’t know when it stopped, when her foot no longer lifted or when the cracking sound turned into mushing.

Her vision had tunneled to nothing but black shadow a while ago.

Grover moved before anyone to catch his sister as he watched her head roll back and her body begin to crumble. He felt her seize up in his arms, cursing loudly as he called Marco and began to dig through one of his bags quickly to find a tongue dispenser to keep her from biting her own tongue off as she shook in his arms.

“Fuck!” Grover shouted when his sister went limp in his arms, the beginning of a fever touching her skin. “Fuck fuck fuck!”

“Dude your sister is fucked up in the head! Did you see what she let her dog do to Mr. H? What she did? Your sister is a fucking monster!” one of the basketball players who decided to stay yelled.

“Jared, knock it off!” Coach turned around and for the first time ever laid his hands on one of his students.

“What the hell, Coach? She’s the one who needs locked up after going psycho on Mr. H. There are sick kids upstairs and she’s down here murdering the fucking janitor!”

“She didn’t kill him,” Coach spoke softly, a shiver running up his spine.

“Uh we kinda just watched her boot him to death.” Jared pointed out the mushed mass of brain and skull left behind on the floor.

“Did you also happen to notice the fact he was still alive through most of that?” Diesel spoke up, watching Grover pick up his unconscious sister.

“Yeah, pencil dick. Let me ask you, did you pay close attention during human anatomy, cause ain’t nobody in this world having their throat ripped out, their neck broken, and their head being crushed in and still struggle against it!” Lyle pointed out.

“She didn’t kill him,” Coach repeated as he went to help Grover with Ally. “Infection from contamination killed him.”

“And brought him back.” Diesel swore, pushing people who were slowly taking up the stairwell back up. “Make a hole assholes, get back up to the first floor.”

“You did not just imply zombies,” Jared said, shuttering as he moved around both the people who had stayed behind and the newly retrieved from the outside who all looked sick as hell.

Grover was halfway to the teacher’s lounge with Ally in his arms before Mary rushed to his side asking questions he couldn’t answer right now. All he knew was that for the first time in a long time Ally had seized up, and he had a feeling it was due to extreme stress.

“Ally?” Mary tapped her sister’s cheek several times, repeating her name. “Come on, Ally, wake up.”

“Give her time Mary…she went through something scary down there. She’ll wake up when she’s ready.”

“What if she’s infected now like the rest?” Jared spoke up. His eyes flickered to each of his friends. “A vote said we couldn’t throw them completely out so for now they’re all down in the shelter locked in. She should be down there too if she’s sick.”

“Alora has a medical condition, she isn’t infected,” Grover shouted, angry about how everyone seemed to be zeroing out his twin.

“What? One that makes her go psycho then freak out?” Jared snarled back.

“Man, knock it off,” Matt spoke up, holding his girlfriend while glaring at his friend.

“What? You weren’t there. One minute she’s screaming her head of then suddenly she snapped and literally stomped a man’s skull to mush. Bitch is crazy. Even if she isn’t infected, she should be locked up or thrown out.”

“Alora went into shock, Jared,” Coach sighed sinking into a chair. He glanced over to Grover then closed his eyes. “I’m going to say this once and no one is ever going to breath a word of this again, are you all understood.”

“Coach you can’t!” Grover recoiled, holding his twin closer.

“They won’t understand unless I do, Grover. All the teachers and parents know about what happened. PTSD is nothing to be ashamed about.”

“But she doesn’t even know and you’re just going to tell them.”

Mary looked between her brother and the Coach. “What do you mean? What are you talking about Grover?”

Grover looked at Mary and closed his eyes tightly, breathing hard for a moment. “That day…in the hospital. When Ally woke up from her coma.”

“Yeah? She woke up, so what?” Jared said rolling his eyes.

“You were right there with her the whole time, Grover, I don’t see why that matters,” Mary spoke, her eyebrows crinkling together.

“Not the whole time…” Grover opened his eyes, his facial expression transformed into showing so much quit and self-loathing.

“Grover…What happened?” Natalie spoke up, moving closer to put her hand on his shoulder.

“Orie woke up alone. She wasn’t herself. She had tried pulling the iv out which set off the monitor. A nurse came in to check on her. I’d only been gone for ten minutes, run to the vending machine.” Grover began to choke up, gripping his sister tighter.

“So she freaked out- What the fuck Matt!” Jared growled, glaring at his friend for punching him in the shoulder to shut up.

Coach’s face fell then, a saddened look of pity creeping into it. “She hadn’t woken up alone, had she Grover? I know the story that was drilled into you by your father over and over Grover. We all know the story.”

“No…not alone. I left to the vending machines and a male patient had slipped into Orie’s room.” Grover felt hot tears slipping down his face. “He wasn’t even supposed to be on that floor. He was a psych patient. He’d gotten past a sleeping orderly.”

Mary turned white as a sheet as her mind played the next part out easy enough. Everyone in the room held their breath, not wanting the rest of the story but knowing it was coming.

“We…we told her she had woken up confused and got the bruises struggling with the nurse. That she was sore from not moving for three days and it would all go away.” Grover rocked his twin in his arms then, begging her to wake up, telling her he was sorry.

“Whenever Alora finds herself under high stress, she freezes everything out. Her mind goes to a singular focus objective, and she completes it. You all remember the archery field, right?” Coach spoke up.
Everyone nodded, several people holding shadowed expressions or tears streaming down their face.

“The hospital staff and patients are all under care of the Keller Corporation. When Alora came back and quit cheer, something she could easily focus on and use to handle her PTSD and took up archery instead, the Keller Corporation washed their hands with her case by building the archery field and locker addons to the school.”

“Shit,” Jared cursed under his breath, but continued to look unchanged. Alora was still a threat if she decided to have an episode like that on one of them. She could still be infected too. “I’m sorry that happened to her, but it doesn’t have anything to do with this. She could still be infected, she’s still a danger to the rest of us.”

“Then let’s lock her up in another room,” Barry suddenly spoke out, chin in the palm of his hand as he balanced his elbow on his knee.

“Fuck you, Barry, seriously?” Grover yelled at his best friend, his face going red.

“Listen, Grover, I’m not saying she must stay locked up. If she’s infected, the infection should spread rather quickly, and we’ll find out if she turns into a freak like the janitor.” Barry turned his gaze over to Jared and seemed to hold his eyes with an eerie cold glint. “If she doesn’t turn, we let her out. She killed a freak that could have killed anyone of us. You are overreacting to the violence you saw because you can’t cope with it. You’re weak minded. Best get over that in a zombie apocalypse.”

Before Jared could even react, LaShawn, Noodle, and Matt stared their teammate down. His behavior wasn’t beneficial, and he was upsetting most in the room.

“Keep your pretty boy trap shut,” Lyle hissed out, narrowing his own gaze in Jared’s direction.

Grover stood up, holding Ally in his arms. “Pick a room then. I’m staying with her.”

Barry nodded and got up. He led them all to a room he felt the Jones siblings could stay comfortably in. “This should be fine. We’ll keep you locked up for two days. Someone will stand guard outside the door, and someone will bring you food.”

Diesel and Lyle gave each other a nod, one going back to the teacher’s lounge while the other leaned against the wall.

“We’ll stand guard outside their door. We’ll sleep in shifts.” Diesel moved to help Lyle drag a small couch to the wall where he had been standing a moment ago. Getting it in place, they both sat down on it and nodded to the rest of the group while Grover carried Ally into her makeshift prison cell.

“Stay out there, Mary,” Grover ordered their little sister, the unsaid words of ‘incase I’m wrong’ passing between them.

“She’s not infected Grover, she’ll make it out of this!” Natilie said crying, Noodle pulling her away back to the teachers lounge to get some rest.

Zoe looked sadly at her old friend as LaShawn pulled her back as well, rubbing circles along her back as they went. Mary stayed as long as she could until her boyfriend from Orchestra picked her sleepy form up in his arms and carried her away. Barry, Coach, and Jared were the last to leave. Jared stared at the broken sleeping form of Alora Jones, and in his heart felt bitter about everything that had happened. Bitter with himself over his actions, over his cowardice, and over his weak mentality. Barry was right. He needed a target to vent his frustrations and fears on. He’d chosen Alora Jones to do that.

Before he walked back to the teacher’s lounge, Jared saw the expressions on Grover, Diesel, and Lyle’s faces. He knew he’d have to watch his back now. He chosen a poor target, one that wasn’t as friendless as she had looked.

Three days went by before Alora woke up. Coach was having a hard time with everything. He had broken a signed contract, a student’s trust, and possibly supplied everyone with information that could come back to destroy a young woman. That was just one of the emotional draw backs of what happened in those three days.

No one knew how the contamination worked, how people got sick and changed into mutant freaks. The kids they had locked downstairs in the fallout still hadn’t changed after the first day causing the students to take a vote again if anyone would at least get them something to eat and drink for their strength.

It had been a draw once more, the room divided. The female students seemed emotionally driven by what was happening with Alora to have hope the others wouldn’t really become like Hector. Boyfriends were easily swayed to vote with them. It had been decided that they would gather some juice up and take it down to them.

That had been a terrible plan. The second day when they went to deliver juice, Matt’s girlfriend, Emily, was dragged into the room screaming by the sick students who had turned. Matt had tried to save her before they started eating her, and Abby had bitten him on the arm. The guys had managed to get the shelter locked again while Matt was quarantined like Alora.

There had been another vote. This time whether to keep Matt alive or to kill him. A bite was proof of infection to all the students. Coach watched as kids who he’d seen waste their days one school functions, sports, parties, and drama come together like a council of adults to cast verdict on a human life.

Barry led the vote, stating they should keep him alive for study. It was inhumane, and at least the computer genius could openly admit that, but he had made valid points. They needed to know how fast infection spread, how quick an infected would turn. They needed to know how to defend themselves against the infected, needed to know how they reacted and hunted.

No one liked the idea of it. Matt was one of them. While waiting for the infection to ravage him completely, he was still conscious, still talking. Coach didn’t think he could take part in the vote, didn’t think he could openly look at those who voted for or against. The others didn’t think they could either. The vote was made anonymous. A box was put in the room and a deck of cards were used as voting tokens. Everyone was given a red and black card. Red for studying Matt, black for killing him.

One by one, they took turns going into the room to vote in private, stashing whatever card they didn’t throw into the box around the room to hide their choice. Coach looked between the two cards in his hand as he looked back to the box. It was his turn to vote, and he was the last one.

Closing his eyes and praying for God to forgive him, Coach took his wallet out and folded the black card, sliding it in. He’d never forget the choice he made today, the choice to watch a student, as a teacher, he swore to protect become a human experiment. He dropped the read card in the box and hoped his students had been more merciful than he had.

Ally opened her eyes, a hiss coming from her dried throat as she tried to speak. Reaching up to rub the scratchiness away, she found herself rolling onto a hard floor.

“Fuck, shit.” The words croaked like a crackling whisper from her mouth as she blinked, her eyes squinting against the glare of light coming through the window. Her mouth felt like someone had stuffed it with cotton balls, her tongue like sandpaper.

She hated it.

Suddenly a cold nose shoved into her face, a grey tongue sliding up her cheek before the offending nose jabbed her in the eye.

“Like I…wasn’t…” Ally tried to grumble at Marco, but her mouth was too dry to form words at the moment.

“Orie?”

“Groov? Why?” ‘Why are you in my room?’ The question danced around the tip of her tongue.

“Oh my god, Orie!” Grover slammed into her from behind, picking her up and spinning her around causing Ally’s head to spin and her stomach to turn.

“Gonna puke,” she moaned.

Grover set his twin down and gave her a sheepish smile. “My bad, let me get you something to drink.”

Soon, Ally was taking quick small sips of orange juice, her throat thankful for the wetness and her mouth finally losing that cotton stuffed feel. Grover watched her closely, happy to see color had returned to her face and she no longer looked like death knocked on her door.

“I sure fucking smell like it did,” Ally spoke up, taking another swig after sniffing herself and making a repulsed face.

“Shit, did I say that out loud?” Grover blushed in embarrassment not realizing he had been muttering the whole time.

Finishing off her juice, Ally stretched her arms above her head and yawned loud enough to crack her jaw. “It’s fine Groov, just tell me what happened while I was out.”

“You remember the explosions and that we’re trapped here in the school?” Grover said slowly, not sure she recalled.

“I didn’t at first,” Ally admitted, moving a hand through her oily hair. “I thought you were in my bedroom when I woke up, but everything trickled back in over the past few minutes.” Swallowing hard, she glanced to her brother, shame and guilt sliding into her features. “Did I really do it…” The words came out in almost a whisper. “Did I kill Mr. H?”

“No.” Grover’s voice came out hard, his hand reaching out to take hers. “You’re not a killer, Orie. Mr. H was already dead, he was a freak.”

“You mean a zombie.”

“Yeah, everyone voted to call them freaks. The ‘z’ word seemed to make everyone more panicked.” Grover gave his sister a soft smile. “Don’t blame yourself for what happened, Orie. It could have been any of us down there. Hell, Coach could have slept down there.”

Ally shivered, running her hands along her arms. Originally Coach had slept down there. He’d slept with all the sick students they had put in the shelter, and they ate him. Things were changing from the script since she woke up at Alora Jones. Mr. H was supposed to attack LaShawn. He wasn’t supposed to be down in the shelter at all. She didn’t think he was even supposed to be a freak yet, but now she didn’t trust anything she knew before.

“Come on, Orie, lets get you out of here so you can use the bathroom and get a shower.” Grover stood up, stretched his back out as though there was a kink in it, wincing then headed towards the door, wrapping his knuckles against it.

Ally furrowed her brows and followed him over, her gaze questioning him as she looked at the door pointedly.

“Jared made a deal out of you being possibly infected. You seized up after dispatching the freak.” Grover carefully worded his sentence, so he didn’t stress his sister out.

“Of course, I understand. He made the right call,” Ally nodded, never noticing the angry look on Grover’s face.

The sound of a lock coming undone from the other side had Grover grinning as Diesel pulled the door open slowly, Lyle standing on the other side with a baseball bat.

“She lives!” Lyle laughed, bat swinging down to tap against his foot.

“Indeed!” Ally gave a cheeky replied back before several footsteps came pounding down the hallway towards them. Soon she saw the several faces staring at her in mixed emotions. Notably, Mary was struggling – looking healthy and alive – to get to her.

“Mare! Ally wiggled her way between Diesel and Lyle, throwing her arms tightly around Mary. “Are you alright, Mare?” Worry filtered in Ally’s voice. She knew they brought the kids in. That they wouldn’t leave them behind. She’s just thankful she hadn’t been in the shelter with them.

“I’m fine Ally, really! I’m just so happy you’re awake. A lot has happened, you’ve been out for three days, Ally.” Mary pulled back, kissing er sister on the cheek then squeezing her back into a hug. “No one knew if you were going to wake up. It was like your coma all over again and I couldn’t even come see you.”

“Sorry Mare, I won’t let that happen again, okay?” Ally wiped her sister’s face, fingers brushing tears away from her cheeks.

“You’d better not!” Grover growled out in a big brother tone, wrapping his arms around his sisters before stepping away. “Seriously though, Orie, go get a shower would ya?”

“Fuck off! You don’t smell any better!” Ally grumbled out, causing people around them to laugh, breaking the quiet that had settled.

“I mean, pretty sure I smell a little better,” Grover said, unconsciously taking a whiff of himself. “I am mistaken,” he blushed, refusing to meet anyone’s eyes.

“It’s alright man,” Lyle slapped Grover on the back. “We don’t smell that great either. Guarding your ass day and night like some princess in a tower.”

Ally blushed, turning to look at Diesel and Lyle both, noticing dark circles under their eyes and the same frumpy clothes she had last seen them wearing.

“Thanks guys, I understand why you had to do it. Jared made a smart call having you lock me up.” Ally turned to look for said basketball player, not noticing the mood shift in the hallway. When she spotted him, she gave him a bright smile. “You’re pretty smart for a rock jockey. Thank you for keeping everyone safe incase things went south.”

Jared’s face turned crimson, he refused to meet anyone’s’ eyes as he glanced around then to the floor. “I’m not that smart…I panicked.” He looked up then to see her still smiling at him.

“That’s okay. Anyone would panic in that situation. Hell I’m still a little panicked myself about what is going on.” Stepping forward, Ally gave Jared a gentle hug, noticing he was stiff as a board when she did it, but not minding.

“Alright well as my brother requests, I’m off to find a shower in this place – and some clothes…” She glanced around at everyone, a giggle bubbling up in her throat. “So…Lost and Found shopping. Nice. End of the world chic.” Ally gave her female friends a thumbs up which had them rushing over to her, a group hug and estrogen proportions taking place.

“Spa day?” Zoe suddenly spoke up, glancing around the girls.

“How?” Mary asked, eyebrows pinched. “In case you forgot, we’re stuck in a school.”

Zoe, Natalie, and Ally laughed together. “Cheersquad!” They said together, Zoe dragging the group down the halls to the locker rooms where the cheerleaders kept all their extra stuff.

The guys watched as they went, noticing Violet was the only one left behind. Grover tapped his crush on the shoulder and motioned for her to follow after them.

“Yeah, I don’t think-“Violet began.

“Violet, hurry up!” Ally yelled back, pausing the girls to motion Violet to speed up.

Violet had been about to say she didn’t think she’d be invited to Grover but found her feet pounding down the hallway to catch up with the girls waiting for her.

“If the ladies are gonna get themselves cleaned up, I suggest it’s shower time! Normally I’d yell practice over, but let’s just pretend that’s what you’ve been doing.” Coach stepped forward and clapped Grover on the back. “Never doubted for a minute she’d be fine.”

The guys all gave nods or friendly shoulder bumps together as they moved towards the male locker room. Jared found himself behind the group, noticing as LaShawn and Noodle cracked jokes, Grover and Barry seemed to be in a hushed conversation with one another, and finally Diesel and Lyle seemed to drag their feet, eyes flickering all around them as if even now they were keeping watch for a possible attack.

“It’s hard,” Coach said from beside him. “Guilt, I mean. It can eat you up inside if you let it drown you, turn you into someone you don’t recognize.”

Jared stopped walking to look up at Coach, nodding his head.

“Don’t let it eat you up boy. Stick to the choices you make. When they turn out wrong, learn from them.” Coach clapped him on the shoulder then nodded towards the locker room. “Now get a shower.”

“Thanks Coach,” Jared turned back to the locker room, seeing Diesel and Lyle standing near the door on look-out again.

“You don’t have to keep watch, we can close the door like the girls did,” Jared said, trying to repair whatever the hell was between them.

“Keeping watch on the girl’s door,” Diesel said with a smirk, high fiving Lyle though it seemed out of place, like they were going through the motions.

Jared just snorted and moved past the two, heading to his gym locker and hoping he had some fresh clothes stashed away for a rainy day.

Diesel watched Jared go, the smirk on his lips sliding away as he glared at the guy’s back. He didn’t like the guy, and he didn’t have a problem saying so, but he was tired. He didn’t know if the other jocks would team up with Jared if there was a fight. Four against two weren’t good odds, and he didn’t trust Barry and Grover to give a helping hand.

“Pencil dick motherfucker,” Lyle cursed next to him. “Panicked my ass, fucker had been downright fucking terrified.”

Diesel snorted. “Didn’t see him wanting to get rid over her during that hug.”

“Man, his dumb ass probably fell in love.” Lyle rolled his eyes. “Guilt-ridden love.”

“Times like this we could really use Dwight,” Diesel’s eyes swept to the girl’s locker room.

“The fuck for?” Lyle shook his head. “You know he doesn’t take orders well unless its from his dad.”

“Nah, ain’t about orders, Lyle. It’s about watchin’ two idiots fight it out. T.V.’s out, remember? Ain’t not entertainment.”

“There is that,” a yawn rolled out past his lips as Lyle leaned against the hallway wall. “Jones fuckin’ owes us. I’m tired as hell.”

“Jones doesn’t owe me shit,” Diesel crossed his arms in front of him. “I meant what I said in detention. He’s a loser. I don’t want shit from him.”

‘Just his sister,’ was left unsaid between the two boys as the showers kicked on behind them.