Episode 10
Euphemia started clawing at the window, trying to get to James, almost breaking the glass. James’ face softened as he let go of Regulus’ hand and went around the truck, “Mum…” He said weakly.
“James!” Regulus said urgently, pulling him back. James fell to the floor despite the light tug, his eyes wide and hopeless.
Barty and Evan made it to the other side and Barty sputtered, staggering backwards and bumping into Evan, seeing the zombie in front of him.
The zombie ran for Barty, grabbing him. Barty kicked it in the chest, causing it to fall to the floor. “There’s a zombie here!” He yelled out to Frank, who had just crawled across.
James scrambled to his feet, catching sight of Frank grabbing a branch as Lily and Alice crouched down near the truck after making it over. “Stop it…” He pleaded softly.
Frank was repeatedly beating the zombie with his branch as it tried crawling towards Evan, since he had slipped on the wet floor. Barty was in front of him, kicking at the zombie’s arms.
“Stop it!” James finally cried. He ran around the truck in one before Regulus could stop him, he pushed Frank to the floor and then went and tackled Barty to the ground, getting on top of him.
“What are you doing?” Barty yelled as James punched him in the face, “James!”
James didn’t stop, “You son of a bitch!” He kept punching and Barty put his arms up around his head to try and block the punches.
Sirius, Remus and Regulus all ran over from the other side of the truck, it took Sirius and Remus’ combined efforts to pull James off of Barty.
“Let go!” James cried, desperately trying to free himself from Sirius’ and Remus’ arms. “Get the fuck off me! Mum!” He sobbed loudly.
Evan had his arms lifted above his head but he and Frank both stilled upon hearing his words. James fell to his knees, Sirius gently letting him go. Tears were streaming down Sirius’ face too as Remus crouched down beside James.
Effie weakly crawled towards James, having been beaten too many times. All the zombies in the surrounding area were beginning to approach them due to all the noise, “We need to go.” Lily said, her voice shaky.
She grabbed onto Alice’s hand and they both got up, “Run!” Frank yelled, running after them. Barty was still lying there but Evan helped him to his feet and put his arm around him, supporting him as they ran off.
“James, please, we have to go.” Remus said, his voice also trembling.
Regulus crouched down in front of him, placing a hand on his shoulder, “Pull yourself together, James.” He said softly, his eyes wide and peering into James’.
James’ expression was completely blank, his eyes fogged over. Regulus glanced at Remus helpless and Remus shrugged in return. “Come on James, let’s go.” Sirius said thickly, him and Remus hauled him up and each kept an arm around him as they followed Regulus who led the way back to the rest of the group.
The thunder crackled around them and Regulus pressed his hands to his ears, his face scrunched up in pain as he stopped slightly. Remus left James with Sirius as he went to Regulus, helping to keep him moving.
Sirius grabbed onto James’ arm instead and picked up the pace, James turned around to see his mum get up again, running after them slowly. “Mum!” He yelled, Sirius grimaced.
“Don’t look back, James. Come on.” He cried. He pulled James along as they ran faster, catching up to Remus and Regulus before everyone else.
“They’re here. Hurry up!” Evan yelled when he caught sight of Remus, the group continued running, having stopped under some trees.
* * *
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” Narcissa cried.
Pandora and Marlene both groaned, “Just shut up.” Marlene panted, they were both exhausted from rolling Narcissa so far.
“Hold on,” Dorcas said, putting a hand up. She stopped around the corner of a building and the three stopped too.
“Why? What is it?” Marlene asked, going closer to her, readjusting the strap that held her broken broomstick.
Dorcas shushed her, peering her head around the corner, she saw the small crowd of zombies running after each other, stepping on the rain puddles. “Hear that?”
Marlene’s eyes widened, “Shit. Fucking zombies.”
“We have to run.” Dorcas sighed, she prepared her bow and arrow as Marlene returned to the stretcher, she held it as Pandora let go and prepared her bow and arrow too.
* * *
Everyone continued running up the hill, Frank moved forward to help Evan support Barty, who was still unstable on his feet after the beating from James.
Lily and Alice tailed behind everyone else when Lily yelped suddenly, slipping and falling to the ground. Alice stumbled and turned back to help her, when she caught sight of the zombie just a bit behind Lily.
“Alice… help.” Lily said, trying to get to her feet, reaching her hand up but Alice didn’t help her. She took a few steps back before running off, back down the hill. Lily gaped at her, before looking behind her to see the zombie starting to approach her.
“Lily!” Evan yelled, he ran back and jumped to knock the zombie, the both of them crashing to the floor. He quickly got up and pulled Lily to her feet, grabbing her hand and stumbling away.
The zombie continued to chase after them until it was shot in the head by an arrow. Pandora Lovegood came forward and shot another arrow at a nearby zombie, “Pandora.” Evan whispered.
Dorcas Meadowes ran out behind her and shot another zombie near them, “Let’s go!” She went over to a hand truck which had been tied to become a stretcher which Narcissa Black sat on top of with Marlene McKinnon pushing it.
As soon as Dorcas had a hand on the stretcher Marlene let go of it and ran to Lily, grabbing her hand, “Come on!” Marlene said, grinning as she helped Lily who was still limping. Lily rolled her eyes, smiling despite feeling ridiculous.
“What are you doing here?” Evan asked in disbelief.
“Just go!” Pandora yelled, she grabbed onto the stretcher and her and Dorcas began pushing it up the hill, following Lily and Marlene.
They joined the rest of the group, all of them running into the indoor volleyball courts. They sighed in relief as they closed the doors but Regulus stopped in his tracks, his eyes widening.
“Regulus, what’s wrong?” Frank asked.
“Run away.” Regulus whispered, his voice barely audible. “Run away.”
With the next crash of thunder, the room lit up and revealed all the zombies in volleyball jerseys that filled the room. They all turned at once, facing the group. “What the fuck.” Marlene swore.
“Run!” Pandora yelled. She grabbed onto Evan’s arm and followed Dorcas as she ran to the storage room to their left, she threw open the doors and everyone ran in behind her.
Marlene grabbed the stretcher and slowly dragged it with her, “Just go!” Narcissa cried, “Just fucking go, stupid! You’re going to kill us both!”
“I don’t fucking care.” Marlene yelled back desperately.
“Are you crazy, McKinnon? Let go!”
“Shut up!”
Narcissa groaned loudly, she untied the rope around her and fell off of the stretcher. The sudden weight shift caused Marlene to fall to the floor, “No! Narcissa!” She yelled.
Dorcas and Pandora both ran out and grabbed onto her as a zombie ran forward and attacked Narcissa. “Let go, you arseholes!” Marlene yelled after the zombies.
They successfully pulled her into the storage room and Evan shut the door behind them. “Let go of me!” Marlene cried, but Dorcas kept a firm arm around her until she calmed down.
Evan collapsed onto the floor against the door in exhaustion and Pandora sat down next to him, holding onto his hand. Frank leaned his head back against one of the shelves and sighed while Lily tucked herself in a corner, breathing heavily.
Barty gulped slightly before approaching James, he was holding onto one of the metal carts in order to keep himself upright, still panting and eyes wide. Regulus stood beside him, his brows furrowed in concern.
Remus and Sirius were sat next to them, Sirius with his head in his hands and Remus leaning his head back against the wall. “James?” Barty said softly.
Regulus looked up at him while Sirius dropped his hands and looked over at him before looking at James. “I’m really sorry. I didn’t know it was your mum.” Barty continued.
A tear rolled down James’ cheek before he fell to the floor, Regulus crouched down beside him, pulling him into his chest as he cried quietly. Sirius covered his face again as he choked out a sob, Remus closed his eyes and tears spilled out of them.
* * *
The sun shone through the window from a small window at the top of the room, birds chirping from outside. They had spent the night there, Lily, Marlene and Dorcas slept in a row in the middle of the room. Barty slept leaning against the wall, with Frank and Evan leaning against him on either side. Barty had his arm around Evan, while Evan’s was on Pandora’s shoulder, cause she slept on his lap.
James had slept lying across the floor with his head in Regulus’ lap, Regulus sat upright against the wall and barely slept with James tossing and turning.
Sirius and Remus slept sitting upright against the wall, Remus was still asleep on his shoulder but Sirius’ had just woken up, blinking tiredly. Sirius looked down at Remus on his shoulder but quickly looked away when Remus stirred.
He lifted his head off of Sirius’ shoulder, rubbing his eyes and stretching his arms out. Remus smiled at Sirius sleepily and Sirius smiled back, before sighing, “I thought about it all night. What do I do? And what is James going to do? How can he go on living?”
Remus looked away, pursing his lips. “Let’s talk a little later.” He said softly, “Tomorrow or the day after. Once we get out of here, and get some food, and get ourselves clean. Let’s talk then.” Remus took a deep breath, “About everything. Okay?”
Sirius nodded slightly and Remus nodded back at him, Sirius smiled tightly, “Sounds good.”
“Just don’t give up, Sirius. You’ve got this.” Remus said, knocking his shoulder into Sirius’. Sirius snorted, nudging Remus’ shoulder back.
“You too.”
“Me too.” Remus laughed.
The rest of the group began stirring and waking up, rubbing their eyes and stretching their sore limbs. James woke up startled, sitting upright and breathing heavily. Sirius and Regulus both furrowed their eyebrows in worry but he waved them off.
Regulus stood up and walked closer to the window, staring out of it. “What is it? Do you see something?” James asked.
“The smell got stronger.” Regulus mumbled in response.
Barty inhaled deeply before ducking down and sniffing both his armpits, “I don’t smell anything.”
Regulus turned around, “I think they’re all coming this way.” He said, addressing the group. “The smell is really strong.”
“We’re trapped in here.” Frank said flatly, “There’s no way to leave.”
“Don’t say that.” Lily said.
Frank sighed, “But it’s true. There’s no way.”
Barty huffed, “Whatever, let them kill us if they want.” He got up and walked over to the window. Regulus sat back down and picked up a metal baseball bat, twisting it around as though he was trying to bend it.
“Dora,” Evan said softly, “You didn’t get eliminated in the preliminaries, did you?”
Pandora stiffened, looking over at Dorcas. “Of course not,” Dorcas said quickly, “She made it.”
“You had a tournament.” Evan said, narrowing his eyes, “Why did you come to the school?”
“She got a perfect score and made it onto the national team.” Dorcas said again, “I saw it.”
“Me too.” Marlene said suddenly, shuffling closer to Dorcas.
“Really?” Evan asked.
Pandora nodded, “Yes, really.”
Evan broke out into a grin, “Then you’re really on the national team? Both of you?”
“Yes they are.” Marlene said proudly.
“Then why are you back already?”
Marlene scoffed, “Oh please, the second the bus pulled back into school, they jumped out of the team bus and ran here to find you. You better be good to your sister. And Dorcas.” Marlene looked off smugly, “And me too.”
Dorcas deadpanned at Marlene as Evan frowned at her, “Who the hell is that?” He whispered to Pandora.
“She’s my friend.” Dorcas answered.
Pandora burst out into laughter, watching Marlene’s face turn pink, smiling shyly, “We’re fucking besties.” Marlene mumbled.
A shadow was cast over the four of them as Barty came over, “What’s so funny?” He asked, sitting down next to Evan.
“Barty!” Pandora said happily, “I’m so glad you’re okay too.”
Barty grinned, “Obviously, did Evan tell you we’re dating now?”
Pandora’s eyes widened as she gaped at Evan, Evan slapped Barty’s arm. “We are not dating.” He said, rolling his eyes, smiling slyly, “But we like each other and-“
“I knew it!” Pandora yelled loudly.
“Don’t you say a word.” Evan said at the same time, and then glaring at her.
The rest of the room looked over at them, before James and Remus both snorted and Sirius laughed out loud, Frank shaking his head at them with a smile.
Barty grabbed a volleyball from a metal cart and threw it at Sirius, then another one at Frank. Sirius caught it and jumped up, throwing it back at him. Barty ducked behind the metal cart and used it to block Sirius’ throw.
James got up and went over to a metal cart, shaking it and rattling it, wheeling it back and forth, lifting it and kicking it. Frank got up and went over to him, “What are you doing?”
“Don’t you think we can get out using these?” James asked. “We can tie the carts together in a circle and go inside to escape.” The group nodded and got to work, rolling up the mats they laid out for sleeping and pulling all the carts into the middle of the room.
They gathered string and found scissors in a first aid kid to cut it. Frank was lifting the cover of a shorter cart and Remus tied it to another taller one. “It’s not going to work like this.” Marlene muttered, “We should flip it completely and hide underneath.” She opened the lid of a short container and held it flat across, so it looked like a small hut underneath.
“No,” Evan frowned, “We should stand it up.”
“You think the zombies can’t climb this?”
Evan sighed, “This is enough.”
“Don’t be stupid. Let’s untie them all, we’ll redo them.” Marlene dropped the cover she was holding and moved to the one next to it, untying the rope.
“It’s too short if we close the lids.” Frank said, “Do you want us to be crawling? If you don’t like it, make your own.” He muttered, retying the knot Marlene just undid.
Marlene shoved him out of the way and Evan cut in between them, “Oi. What’s wrong with you?” Frank turned around, glaring back at Marlene. “Dorcas, do something.”
“Say that again.” Marlene said.
“Stay out of our way.” Frank retorted. Marlene raised her hand to push him again but Frank grabbed her arm to stop her, and she kicked his shin. “Fuck you.” Frank mumbled in pain.
“‘Fuck you?’” Marlene repeated, James ran forward to stop her, “Get out of my way.”
“Cut it out.” James glared at her, “You too, Frank.”
Frank glared back at James, “Who does she think she is, telling us to redo everything.”
“Who do I think I am? You prick.”
“Come on, Marls, you’re coming with us, aren’t you?” James asked.
“You’re the ones coming with us.” Marlene said, glaring up at James.
James threw his hands up in the air and Lily had to stifle her laugh, “You two both relax, if we separate, we’re all going to die.” Lily tried.
“If we don’t want to die, we should make it higher.” Frank said.
“Oh my god, be quiet.” James cried, “How many people died just on the way here? We can’t lose anyone else. Can we please not fight amongst ourselves?”
Frank put his hands on his hips, “I’m not fighting to die. It’s because I want to live.”
“Then do as I say.” Marlene muttered.
“Then let’s go separately!” Frank yelled, storming off.
Marlene huffed, “That fucker. Get back here.” She tried to go towards him but James pushed her backwards, “Get back here! Let go of me, fuck! Do you think I’m doing this because I want to die?” She yelled.
Regulus pushed one metal cart against the other, pushing it with an arm, the two banging together loudly. The room went silent as the others flinched, “Let’s vote on it.” He said, calmly.
“And who are you?” Marlene asked.
“The class president.”
Everyone stood in line on one side of the room while Regulus stood in front of them, “First, we split up.”
No one moved.
“Second, we stay together.”
Pandora’s arm immediately shot up, the others all following suit, even Frank and Marlene.
Regulus nodded, “We’ll go together. Next.”
“Is it really smart to vote?” Barty asked, “Like, on life death matters, we’re just going to follow the majority? What if we collectively decide to do the wrong thing?”
Lily rolled her eyes, “There’s something called collective intelligence.”
“There are too many unintelligent people here.” Barty muttered, shooting a look at Marlene.
Marlene narrowed her eyes at him, “What are you looking at?”
“Do we vote about voting?” Sirius asked.
“Really, how have you guys survived till now?”
“Would you butt out of our conversation?” Barty asked, “We’re doing this because you started the fight.”
Marlene looked over to Dorcas, “Give me an arrow so I can stab him.”
Regulus exhaled silently, “Let’s proceed to the next item.” He interrupted, “First, make the outside high.”
Frank raised his hand first, Lily, James and Remus after him. Remus glanced behind him and grabbed Sirius’ hand, raising it for him.
“Five votes.” Everyone dropped their hands, “Second, fold the lids and make a box.”
Marlene immediately raised her arm, followed by Dorcas, Pandora, Evan and Barty. Frank stared at Evan incredulously, “What the hell.” he muttered, “You said it was better to stand them up.”
“I changed my mind.” Evan whispered back.
“Five votes…”
Dorcas nodded her head at Regulus, “What about you? You’ll be the tiebreaker.”
Regulus blinked, “I’m for option one. So option one received majority vote, we’ll make the walls high.”
The group nodded while Marlene rolled her eyes, “Let’s make it then.” Frank said, getting up.
“Don’t resent me later, the zombies really will climb over.” Marlene said, also getting up, walking past Frank.
“I’ll lead the way and take responsibility, you can stand back.”
Marlene scoffed, going up to Dorcas, “Why is everyone so damn rude these days.”
Dorcas looked her up and down, “No one compares to you.” She said, her expression unchanged. Marlene’s jaw dropped slightly as Lily snorted, shaking her head.
“Come on, McKinnon.” Lily chided lightly.
Everyone got to work, opening the lids of the carts and tying them taller, making sure the knots were tight, rattling them to make sure.
Pandora found a box of knee and elbow pads for volleyball and so everyone put those on too. “Straighten your arm.” Sirius instructed Remus, holding an elbow pad.
Remus took it out of Sirius’ hands and deadpanned, “You straighten your arm.”
Sirius sighed but held his arm out anyway, Remus helping him to put it on, then doing the same on his other arm. Sirius watched Remus focus on making sure it sat correctly, “Remus?”
“What?”
“Don’t you hate me?”
“No.”
“Why not.”
“I don’t know. I’ve never hated you, it’s amazing.”
Sirius narrowed his eyes at him but Remus gave him a sly smirk in return, “Your turn.” Sirius muttered, grabbing two more elbow pads and Remus putting them on.
Evan and Pandora both fussed over each other much to the amusement of Barty and Dorcas while Regulus absolutely refused James’ help, also refusing to help him.
Once everyone had put on knee and elbow pads, they lined the tied up carts around the room, standing inside the circle. Frank approached the door, he took a deep breath before turning around to face the group, “Everyone ready? I’ll open the door.”
Barty exhaled deeply, “Hold on. Will this really work out?”
“It will.” Frank nodded.
Pandora tightened the shoulder pads Evan decided to put on, “Don’t do anything stupid. Stick with me.”
“You stick with me.” Evan muttered in response.
Lily slipped her hand into Marlene’s and she squeezed her hand in response. Sirius grabbed two metal baseball bats and handed one to James, “I’ll lead. You take the tail.” James nodded at him before Sirius walked over to Frank.
“I’m opening it.” Frank said again.
“Fuck.” Marlene breathed, “I really hope you’re right.”
“I’ve seen countless zombies,” Frank said, turning around, “They don’t have the intelligence to climb over.”
Everyone went to a cart while Pandora and Dorcas moved into the middle, preparing their bows. Frank unlocked the door, inhaling deeply before pushing the door open. The sound immediately drew zombies in their direction, Sirius ran out and began hitting the zombies down, Dorcas and Pandora shooting ones running at them while everyone else pushed the line of carts out of the room.
Once all the carts were out, Frank yelled “Turn!”, and the first half of the line turned, James, Pandora and Dorcas ran into the circle before they closed it and tied the last two carts together.
“Is it tied?” James yelled.
“Done! Push!”
Everyone began pushing in the direction of the door but every zombie in the room had flooded over to them, pushing against the carts in all directions. “It won’t fucking budge!” Barty yelled.
Sirius and James were both using their bats to try pushing as many of them off the outside. Pandora and Dorcas shooting any that were reaching their arms in. One zombie reached into the ring and managed to grab hold of Lily, Remus took a bat out of the cart in front of him and beat it over the head while Regulus grabbed Lily and pulled her out of its grip.
“James! Above you!” Marlene yelled out, one zombie had climbed dangerously high, almost into the circle. Marlene ran over to help push it down with her broomstick, jumping up but she lost her balance when she landed and crashed into the wall, another zombie managing to grab her.
Frank’s eyes widened and he went to help push the zombie off her, one hand at its shoulder, the other on the side of its face. The zombie turned its hand and bit into Frank’s hand before James came over and helped him push it off with his bat. Frank collapsed to the floor, sitting and looking at his hand, his eyes filled with dread.
Marlene crouched down next to him, “Holy shit!” She screeched, “What do we do?”
“Shit.” Frank whispered, looking around at all the zombies climbing up and all his friends struggling, “I shouldn’t have said I’d take responsibility.” He jumped up and onto a cart.
“Where are you going!” Marlene cried, jumping up to try and grab him. He climbed over the ring despite everyone calling his name. The zombies grabbed onto him and dragged him over the circle, all falling to the floor.
He fought them off and ran to the circle, pulling a zombie off of the carts. “Get off! Get off, you pricks!” He yelled, he pulled another one off before grabbing onto the empty spot he cleared. Zombie ran over, one by one, biting him in the shoulder, on his back, his arms. “Come on guys, push!” He cried, desperately trying to pull the carts forward too.
Frank was directly in front of Lily and she cried, seeing his face scrunch up in pain and the blood dripping from his nose. Frank flung the zombies off of him, “Let’s go!” He continued yelling, “Let’s get home!”
The cart was moving faster now, James, Sirius and Remus pushing harder than ever before, all holding back tears too. Even Marlene was crying watching him, “Let’s go home!” Frank sobbed, running to pull more zombies off of the carts. “Just a bit more! We’re almost there!” The zombies followed after all, all latching on as they bit him all over.
Marlene grabbed onto his hand, trying to hold onto him but they dragged him to the floor, his body couldn’t even be seen under the mountain of zombies on top of him. He laid on the floor, twitching and convulsing, until he had turned into a zombie too, running up to the cart.
Sirius has returned to hitting zombies off of the cart but when Frank latched on, he stopped, gripping his bat tightly, the tears spilling out of his eyes. They finally pushed the carts enough to reach the doors on the other side of the courts. “Untie it!” James yelled. Barty quickly went over to untie the string while James pushed down the remaining few zombies in between the two carts they were opening.
“It’s untied! Push!” Barty yelled. They pushed two ways to hold back all the zombies on either side and James rushed to open the door, slamming his body against it.
“It won’t open!” He yelled, Lily running over to help him.
“What do you mean?” Sirius shouted.
“It’s locked from the outside!” Lily yelled back.
James pushed Remus back, before banging on the doorknobs with his bat. Marlene climbed up onto a cart and started hitting all the zombies, doing a mix of screaming and crying, Dorcas grabbed onto her waist and pulled her back down.
The carts were beginning to fall apart under the weight of the zombies, the string snapped between two of them and Regulus had to reach over to grab the other one and connect them again, his face ended up almost pressed against a zombie and his eyes widened at the sight of it, snarling and growling at him, it’s mouth wide open. He thanked each and every god out there, whether he believed in them or not, and couldn’t believe that that could’ve been him.
“Hurry up!” Remus shouted. James left the door to help push the carts back and left Lily started throwing herself at the door instead, she ran into it several times before running back once more. She ran forward but before she made it to the door, it swung open.
Harold Evans stood on the other side of the door, all the air felt as though it had been knocked out of Lily’s chest. Harold stood on the other side, eyes wide as he stared at her.
“Dad.” Lily whispered, before running out and barrelling him in a hug, he immediately wrapped his arms around her, squeezing tightly.