Chapter Text
October in Hatchetfield was the beginning of the blistering, cold winter that was to come. There were still warm days of course, but with the lake around them, cool winds and snow hit them sooner than it might hit other places. The day it all began seemed like any other, aside from the excessive winds. Emma sighed as she stared out the window, truly wishing she was home wearing a sweater rather than the stupid short sleeved uniform. Truly she was displeased. Zoey had called out sick and Nora had left on an emergency milk run, leaving her alone with a crowd of grumpy people.
“An iced chai latte,” Mr. Stupid Mustache said, slapping the counter and looking to his coworkers behind him like he was cool.
“I can’t make you a latte, we’re out of milk,” Emma said in a bland voice.
“What do you mean you’re out of milk?” the man cried.
“We’re out of milk! The shipment didn’t come last night, my boss is trying to get some right now, so either I just make you a chai without milk or you wait,” Emma said, trying hard to keep her cool.
“Well I don’t want to wait!” Mr. Stupid Mustache exclaimed. “We have ten minutes to get back to the office before our boss is on our ass and stupid Paul wanted to visit you instead of going to Starbucks and I just wanted my drink!”
Emma rolled her eyes and sighed. “Starbucks didn’t get their milk delivery either so no one around has milk, first of all. Second, why the fuck do you want an iced drink when it’s this cold outside?”
“I don’t like your attitude! Where’s the hot one?” the man asked.
“She called in sick so she could fuck around with her boyfriend, I’m all you’ve got,” Emma stated, crossing her arms.
“Ted, quit being a dick, please,” Mr. Tall-And-Lanky sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
Mr. Stupid Mustache, or Ted as he was apparently called, slapped the counter again. “No! I want my fucking drink!”
“Ted, you’re throwing a tantrum,” Mr. Nice Beard stated, clearly just as done with the man as Emma was.
“How can a coffee shop be out of milk first thing in the morning, they should know better!” Ted said quickly, irritated.
“Ted, please don’t make a scene,” Mrs. Curly Hair said softly, putting a hand on his arm.
Ted deflated some at that, running a hand over his hair. “I just want my drink.”
“I know, I know, but you’ll have to wait,” Mrs. Curly Hair soothed.
“Can you guys get out of the way? I'm in a hurry!” Mr. Hurry said from the back of the line.
Ted slapped the counter again. “No!”
Another woman in line, one who didn’t come in the shop often, stepped to the side a bit from where she had been standing next to a dark haired man and looked into Ted’s eyes. “Calm down and step out of the line so other people can go while you wait,” she said calmly.
For some reason, Ted actually listened and stepped to the side.
“Thank you, Ms. Magic, alright who’s next?” Emma asked as she looked at the group of coworkers.
As she said that, the bell rang as the door opened. Emma looked up and saw Nora enter but didn’t bother paying more attention than that, assuming she would come behind the counter and give her the milk. She turned back to Mr. Tall-And-Lanky to his order, but suddenly a scream rang out, startling everyone in the shop. Everyone turned around to see Nora biting into Mr. Hurry in the neck, tearing a chunk out of it.
“What the fuck?!” Emma cried, backing away towards the counter behind her instinctively.
Chaos rang out as the customers attempted to get away from the threat, but they were directly in front of the door and therefore the main exit. Ms. Magic pushed the man with her towards the gate to get behind the counter and shouted, “Get in the back!”
That command got the other customers to follow the man’s lead and Emma held open the door for them to move faster. Ms. Magic seemed to be staring down Nora and the guy that she was clearly trying to eat. After a moment she backed up and followed the rest behind the door to the employee area. Emma locked the door behind them once everyone got in and took a deep breath, looking at the other people in the hallway.
“What the fuck was that?” Mr. Nice Beard asked.
“Do you know ‘The Evil Dead’ or ‘Day of the Dead’?” Ms. Magic asked.
“Zombies?” Ted asked, leaning against the wall. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Nora was fine like five minutes ago!” Emma cried.
Ms. Magic sighed. “And now she isn’t,” she stated. “Basically, her mind was consumed and it’ll do the same to that other guy.”
“So we didn’t have to look for the problem after all?” Ms. Magic’s companion asked. “It found us?”
She nodded and sighed. “Welcome to the apocalypse, folks.”
“What do we do?” Mrs. Curly hair asked.
“We need to get out of here, find somewhere safe,” Ms. Magic stated.
“I need to call my daughter,” Mr. Nice Beard said quickly, pulling out his phone.
Emma, Mrs. Curly Hair, and Ted pulled out their phones as well in an attempt to contact family members. “Shit!” Emma said, shaking her phone in frustration as she realized the tower must be down or at least struggling. “Nothing.”
“We can worry about that later, right now we need to worry about getting to safety, soon they’re going to start trying to eat us too,” Ms. Magic stated, pointing at the door they’d gone through.
“Where do we go?” Ms. Magic’s Companion asked.
“We could try to go to my kooky reclusive biology professor’s place. It’s out in the middle of nowhere, it should be safe there,” Emma suggested.
“What’s his name?” Ms. Magic asked, her full focus suddenly on Emma.
“Uh, Henry Hidgens?” Emma said slowly.
Ms. Magic laughed and shook her head. “No, we are not going to Henry Hidgens’ home in an apocalypse. Any other suggestions?”
“We could… oh! Remember the place CCRP had before buying the building we’re in now? The Steel Mill and Factory? It’s mostly emptied out now, they took it all to the new place, and there’s all sorts of fencing and stuff to protect us,” Mr. Tall-And-Lanky suggested.
“That’s right!” Mr. Nice Beard said. “CCRP is known for its security. Even though it’s abandoned they didn’t take it all down, and if everything really is going to hell, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind, right?”
“Maybe we should go back to the office and see?” Mrs. Curly Hair suggested.
“No!” said everyone else.
Ms. Magic put a hand on her shoulder. “Trust me, bad things started much earlier, it’s just reached the point of no return when it comes to the chaos. Your husband is a police officer, right?”
The woman nodded.
“He might have been talking about weird people attacking others or acting strangely last night, right?” Ms. Magic asked.
The woman nodded again. “He thought it was a new drug or something, he said the one person called it Nibbly and that’s why they had the munchies.”
Ms. Magic sighed. “It isn’t a drug, it’s a psychic infection caused by a god. We need to go to safety now, okay? Your office is probably already attacked.”
“We’ll have to split cars. I drove us here, so Miss Holloway and I can go in one and with a few others. Ms… you don’t have a name tag,” Ms. Magic, or rather Miss Holloway’s companion stated.
“Emma, and yeah, I drove here, but I don’t know how to get to the mill,” Emma said.
“That’s alright, I know the way, I can go with you and give you directions,” Mr. Tall-And-Lanky stated.
“And I will NOT go in that car because I don’t want to be around Paul being a dork with a crush so I will go with you two,” Ted stated.
Mr. Tall-And Lanky, Paul, blushed at that and looked down.
“I’ll go with Ted if that’s alright,” Mrs. Curly Hair said.
“And I’ll go with Paul because he’s my friend,” Mr. Nice Beard said, clearly pointing that at Ted.
“Great, can we get out the back?” Miss Holloway asked.
Emma nodded. “Give me like five seconds to put on pants before we go,” she said, running into the break room and closing the door behind her. She heard banging beginning on the other side of the cafe door, but there was no way in hell she was running from zombies in a mini skirt any longer than she needed to if she had the option to change. She threw on her winter jacket, hat, and scarf, grabbing her bag as well before leaving the room and heading to the storage room and loading dock. The others followed her inside as she started to fumble with the stupid electronic lock that never wanted to open.
“It might be a good idea to try to find something to defend yourselves with,” Miss Holloway suggested, grabbing a box cutter off a shelf and throwing it to her companion.
“There isn’t much here,” Ted muttered, grabbing out a container of caramel sauce and threatening to squeeze it at Mr. Nice Beard.
Emma muttered to herself about the stupid lock as the others fucked around in the room. Suddenly, the door to the employee area of the cafe broke open, allowing the infected to enter. Her attempts to open the back door got more frantic at the sound of the others trying to slam the door they entered through shut while the zombies pushed against them. Finally, finally the large door opened and she dragged Paul out with her, and the others followed suit out into the parking lot.
The parking lot for the coffee shop was behind the place due to it being on a main road surrounded by buildings, though there was a road beside the building to get back to the parking and the alley that ran behind it. That meant both of their cars were quite close, though Emma managed to get to hers first because it was closest. She fumbled with her keys as she unlocked the car and flopped inside, quickly unlocking the doors for the others before closing her own. There were infected people coming after them the moment they left the shop, but both of her ride companions managed to get inside without getting caught and she locked the doors once more.
The other four had a bit more difficulty, one of the zombies managed to grab Miss Holloway’s Companion, but he slashed them with his box cutter before they could actually hurt him and kicked them away. Soon they were also all in their cars and off on the road with the other car leading the way. Emma still didn’t know the way to the place they were talking about, but Paul and Bill were giving her instructions. As they went, they saw the destruction of the town around them. It was true that chaos was everywhere, people were being attacked, somehow a trashcan was on fire, it was pure insanity and it filled Emma with a cold, deep sense of dread.
And then her phone started playing the song ‘Roll on 18 Wheeler’. “TOM! Shit!” Emma exclaimed, pulling her phone out of her pocket. “Dude, try your daughter,” she added before answering the call. “Tom?”
“Emma? Thank God, where are you?” Tom said on the other side of the phone.
“Where are you?! I tried to call you!” Emma said quickly. She heard the guy in the back talking on the phone to who she assumed was his daughter, but was more interested in getting the conversation with Tom completed before the line died again because reception was already terrible.
“St. [static] Tim [static] his wrist [static] morning. Can you [static]?” Tom replied. “We’re stuck in [static] car.”
“Tom, I can barely understand you. Do you need to be picked up from the hospital parking lot?” Emma asked, trying her best to piece together what she was hearing.
“Yes!” Tom exclaimed, loud and clear for a brief moment.
“Okay, I’ll find you, stay in your car,” Emma said before hanging up and making the executive decision to turn down a different road towards the hospital.
“What’s happening?” Paul asked, holding onto the ceiling due to the sudden turn.
“My brother in law and nephew are at St. Damian’s and they need to be rescued. Something about Tim’s wrist, something about the car. I’m guessing it isn’t working, or he wouldn’t need me,” Emma stated as she drove. It seemed the other group noticed her sudden detour and had chosen to follow because they were behind her now.
Mr. Nice Beard was still trying to communicate with his daughter and Emma could actually pay attention to that a bit now as she drove. “What? Alice-” There was silence. “Alice, I’m not going to just leave you there!” There was silence again. “What if no one comes with guns to kill them all?” Silence. “I don’t care if it-” Silence. “Alice, you can’t do this. I love you too much to- Alice!” The man slammed his phone onto the seat beside him and groaned, rubbing his face.
“Bill?” Paul asked slightly awkwardly. “What’s wrong?”
“Alice decided to go to Hatchetfield High School instead of taking the bus back to Clivesdale and is now trapped inside it with a few others. Now the school is surrounded on all sides by zombies and she doesn’t want me to try to save her because it’ll get me killed and she told me she loved me and I just-” Bill broke down in tears, unable to continue.
“Okay, okay, Bill, you need to breathe,” Paul said slowly as Emma drove way above the speed limit towards the hospital.
“Why?!” Bill cried.
“Because Alice is trying to save your life, the best thing you can do for her because of that is live,” Paul said simply. “She wants you to try to survive in this. There’s no way we have what we’ll need to save her, she knows that, she just wanted to say goodbye, and to give you closure.”
“I can’t go on without my daughter, Paul,” Bill said tearfully.
“You can because she wants you to. If she wanted you to die with her she would have told you to come, but she didn’t. I don’t want her to die any more than you do, but there’s nothing we can do and she knows that. She wants you to live, and she wanted to be able to tell you she loves you before she dies. We need to live for Alice’s sake, alright?” Paul said.
Bill took a deep breath and nodded a bit. “Okay, live for Alice’s sake, I can- I can try.”
“Good, because we’re fucking here,” Emma said as she pulled into the parking lot. She looked around to find Tom’s sedan, and it wasn’t hard to spot given that it was the only one that had zombies trying to get into it. She parked near it and tried to think. “Shit.”
“How many are there?” Paul asked.
“Too many for us,” Bill said softly.
The other car pulled up alongside them so Miss Holloway could talk to Emma as she rolled down her window. “What’s going on?” she asked.
“My brother-in-law and nephew are stuck in that car, we need to get them out,” Emma explained quickly after also rolling down her window. Some of the infected heard their chatting and started coming towards their cars instead of focusing on Tom’s.
“Okay, this is fine. I’ll have Duke drive over there and distract them while they get in your car,” Miss Holloway suggested.
“Good plan,” Emma said, rolling up her window and getting ready to unlock the car doors.
Bill moved to the other side of the back seat so that they could get in quicker while ‘Duke’ drove the other car further away from them and began to blare his horn. It did successfully distract the zombies, luring them away from the sedan and Emma’s car. As soon as they were clear, Tom burst out of the driver’s seat and opened the back door. Much to her surprise, a red haired woman was also in the back and was gently pushing Tim out of the car. The three of them ran to Emma’s car and she unlocked it long enough for them to close the door before locking it again.
“Becky Barnes?!” Emma exclaimed, though she focused on starting the car back up.
“Hi,” Becky said weakly as she got Tim situated on her lap since she was in the middle.
“Where are we going?” Tom asked, buckling seats. “Who the hell are these people?”
“Uh, Paul is beside me and Bill is in the back with you, we’re going to the old steel mill and factory? They work for CCRP and they think it’ll be safe,” Emma explained as she began to follow Duke’s car again.
“Alright, sure, that’s fine,” Tom said, still clearly confused.
“Why didn’t you mention Becky was with you?” Emma asked.
“I did?” Tom said. “Did the static fuck it up?”
“I guess so. What’s with the wrist?” Emma asked.
“He tripped on the stairs this morning and landed on it, so we came here to get it fixed, and then all hell broke loose. We tried to get away, but my car died while we were in there, so we were stuck,” Tom explained. “I ask again, who the fuck are these people?”
“Customers at Beanies when shit hit the fan, we all kind of grouped together,” Emma said. “We’re following others from the shop right now.”
“Alright, great, I think we’re all caught up,” Tom stated.
“Great, next stop is the factory,” Emma said, focusing once more on driving.
Emma had no idea what the fuck was going on. She didn’t know what was going to happen. She was terrified, it seemed like the world was ending and she was not ready to die, but there wasn’t much that she could do at the moment. The plan was to try and survive as long as possible, that was why they were going to the steel mill rather than trying to leave town. There was no way to know it was safer out there than it was inside Hatchetfield. Hell, if the rest of the continent was infected, Hatchetfield might just be safer given that it was just an island with a limited amount of people to infect. Emma was going to make the best of what they had for as long as she could, because there was no way in hell she was dying in Hatchetfield.