Chapter 1
“How soon do you think we can put the Death Star together?” Peter questioned his best friend as they both sat in the high school cafeteria. “Because a lot of the pieces are pretty tiny.”
“How long will it take them to become less nerdy?” asked MJ sitting at the same table, but a few seats away between the pair of friends. “Don’t you have anything better to do planned for their weekend?”
“And what do you have planed for this weekend?” Ned asked defensively.
Before the brown-skinned girl could respond, a tall girl with white teas and long black hair sat down next to Leeds dropping her tray of food in a less than delicate manner, so much so that some of the food on the tray fell onto the table due to the force of the impact.
“Your friends seems upset” MJ pointed out instead of answering the question one of the boys had asked her a couple of seconds earlier.
“Hey, what are you doing here?” Parker asked the newcomer, “Aren’t you supposed to be at the archery competition?”
“I should be, but Director Pierce decided that the best punishment he could give me for slightly knocking over that old clock tower was to suspend me from today’s competition” Bishop replied before shoving a large spoonful of mased potato into his mouth.
“That it wasn’t a bell tower?” questioned the brown-skinned girl with genuine intrigue.
“And that you didn’t throw it away almost completely?” Ned added.
“Yes, it was also a steeple with a huge clock that no one can read and it probably didn’t even work, and my mother would have had to pay for the whole thing like new anyway.” the archer stated still with a bit of mash in her mouth. “But they’re ignoring what’s really important in this while thing: What kind of Director would think of taking his best archer out of a big competition?”
“Did Clint Barton get suspended?” Peter asked with concern. “Did he help you take down the bell tower?”
“What? No, obviously I’m talking about me; I took down that antique all by myself.”
“Barton is the best on the archery team.” Leeds mentioned. “There’s a reason his nickname is Hawkeye.”
“Yeah, he’s nice and has a cool nickname, but you guys are my friends and you’re supposed to support me on this.”
“Oh, I’m not your friend” MJ pointed out, “I just eat at the same table as you guys and get into your conversations.”
“Whatever, that’s something too, so you should support me on this.”
“There’s no way anyone can help you look cooler than Hawkeye; even her gymnast best friend is called Red Angel and that makes them like the coolest duo in high school.”
“I heard they call her Red Dead because she wiper out all her opponents in gymnastics competitions.” Ned added.
“I like that one better, the other one is shallow and might even be sexist.”
“Well, the guys and girls at the sports clubs who have dated or had a thing with her say she has a Black Widow spider tattooed on her and have started calling her that.” Kate commented. “They also say it’s appropriate for her because she likes to flirt, seduce and then dump you for no apparent reason after she’s slept with you; although, honestly, I wouldn0t mind being bitten by that Black Widow, but she only seems to date people her age or older, so I don’t think I have a chance of her noticing me.”
“That’s too many nicknames for one person.” Parker complained.
“And they’re all cool too, not like you being called Spidey-boy because you almost jumped out of the lab window for seeing a little spider.”
“It was literally just one time! And, in my defense, that thing came out of nowhere and looked pretty poisonous…”
Peter’s brain tried to keep working quickly in search of another argument to defend himself to his friends from that embarrassing situation that had occurred almost at the beginning of the school year; however, the sound of shouting from outside the cafeteria building caught his attention and made his skin crawl as if it were a warning sing of danger.
Everyone in the cafeteria dining room fell into absolute silence as the screams drew closer to them and became more audible above all the noise of conversations.
“What that hell is going on out there?” asked MJ in confusion.
“I don’t know, but I don’t have a good feeling about this; maybe we should…”
Parker wasn’t able to finish his sentence when a girl in a high school uniform pulled open one of the glass doors at the main entrance and ran into the building as if her life depended on it, and behind her other students began to do the same.
Bishop immediately stood up on instinct, followed almost at the same time by Peter, Ned and MJ.
The first thought of the four was to approach the new arrivals to try to help them, though that was replaced by a second thought of moving away as soon as they noticed that some of the students’ uniforms were stained with what appeared to be blood.
“What the fuck…?” the archer muttered just before a wave of other students began to crash through the glass doors and it didn’t take the sharpness of her eyesight to notice that some students seemed to be attacking other erratically, but the straw that really broke her back was seeing how some were tearing chunks of skin off others with their own teeth. “Back up, now” he ordered, pushing Leeds into the nearest aisle, unable to take her eyes off the scene outside behind the glass doors, like the rest of the cafeteria.
Everything inside the building was still relatively calm, the stampede on the other side of the doors made it impossible for them to be opened; however, eventually, the force of everyone trying to get in made the glass start to crack which made everyone start to react and head to the other end of the building, towards the kitchen, unable to take their eyes completely away from the main doors that were giving way more and more.
Suddenly, as expected, the glass could not hold any longer and the aggressive, blood-covered students began to enter the building like a stampede of rabid, hysterical animals in search of more prey.
“Get back!” cried Peyer, grabbing MJ’s hand and running in exactly that direction. “Now, now, now!”
“Are they what I think they are?” asked Kate, half excited and half confused, standing back a bit to get a better look at the crazed students.
Bishop was a good archer, somewhat more than good depending on who you asked, but she could be slow at some things and among those things seemed to be reacting in he middle of an attack in the school cafeteria at the high school; her friends reacted and maybe later would ask the questions, quite the opposite of what she did and what led her to find herself in the middle of another human stampede where she was pushed in all directions until she ended up on the ground along with other unfortunate students.
In an attempt to avoid being crushed, the young black-haired girl drew her knees up to her chest from her sitting position on the dining room floor and covered the sides of her head with her hands.
Whan the human stampede calmed down a bit, Kate finally looked up to assess her situation; however, there was no time to think or react, the only thing her brain could process was one of the many students covered in blood running straight at her.
Luckily for Bishop that was not destined to be the moment of her death because a leg squeezed from behind her and kicked hard at the young man who seemed to want to devour her in the most literal sense of the word and almost immediately after a pair of strong arms pinned her under her armpits and pulled her to feet in on swift, single motion.
“Move if you don’t want to die.” said a thick female voice behind the archer’s back.
Kate guessed that that the same girl who just saved her ass, or face in this case, was the same one who took her by the hand and guided her to the back of the building, practically dragging her to keep her alive.
While Kate Bishop did not come from a religious family and ultimately did not consider herself to be a spiritual person of any kind, she could get down on her knees and pray to the apparently foreign young blonde for being a Goddess in her eyes who saved her life… Or she could thank her for simply existing now that she could see part of her profile in the midst of all the mess.
The archer’s heroine was shorter in stature, but she seemed to be stronger and more agile, something she proved without a problem when she jumped over a large group of students trying window through which they were served during their lunch break.
“Shit” Bishop said as she saw her savior get off the back of some students, though now with a large, sharp kitchen knife in her hand.
The, so far, nameless blonde girl didn’t seem to want to harm anyone with the knife she held in her hand; in fact, her plan was intended only to intimidate others with the bladed weapon as she initially just threw some kicks and punches, refusing to use the knife until her life depended on it and she stabbed someone in the neck.
“Kate!”
Peter’s shout for the archer was loud enough for Bishop to react by looking in the direction of his friend.
On one of the tables at the side of the building was Peter helping his friends out of one of the windows that was closer to the ceiling that the floor.
This time Kate reacted in a better and faster way as now she was the one who grabbed the blonde’s hand that had saved her ass and dragged her through the mess to the side of the building where her friends were trying to flee.
“Hey! Let go of me!” complained the Russian-accented girl. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Now I’m saving your life” Bishop replied as she pushed the other girl across the table.
Peter helped the unknown young blonde girl climb up the wall to get to the window, then they both started to help the archer to climb up as well with each at one end of the window.
Kate almost had a heart attack when suddenly, halfway up her climb to the window, she saw the girl she just met wield the knife in the direction of her face, so she closed her eyes tightly and waited for the metal blade to pierce her skin; however, all she could feel was the splash of hot liquid on the right side of her face.
When Bishop dared to open her eyes again, she found the blonde’s face closer to hers and through her peripheral vision she realized that the knife was never aimed at her face directly.
Taking a second to get a better look at what lay to her right, the archer appreciated how the blonde’s knife was wedged in the eye of a student with his face, and especially his mouth, covered in blood, which she was almost certain would have taken a chuck out of her neck had it not been for the girl who had just saved her for the second time in a span of less than five minutes.
“Get upstairs now or I’ll leave you here!” commanded the blonde with a Russian accent as she pulled the knife and used her foot to push the body of the boy she just stabbed in the eye.
“Come on, Kate!” Parker shouted as she tugged on her friend’s archery equipment sweater to help her finish climbing into the window.
The three of them took turns jumping out of the window into the alley outside the cafeteria building where Ned and MJ waited impatiently and nervously for them.
“What took you so long?” complained the brown-skinned girl. “We have to go now.”
“And where exactly are we going?” Bishop asked. “Because it looks to me like those things are everywhere.”
“Let’s go to the main building,” Leeds proposed, “we’ll find an adult there, a teacher who knows what to do.”
Before anyone could try to contradict or support the impromptu plan, another stampede of crazed students came form one end of the alley, forcing them to start running in the direction of the main building with no other option at that point.
Peter led the way jumping between the paths and planters outside until, just after losing the chasing group and turning the corner of a building, he ran head-on into another group of students covered in blood.
“Open that door!” ordered the blonde girl, pointing to a service door they had just passed a few meters back. “I’ll distract them.”
Without giving any of them time to protest, the young woman whose name they still didn’t know ran in the direction of the students who were out of their minds and took advantage of her size, agility and the knife she carried with her to break through the group and get their attention.
“Damn, she’s so cool” said Kate when she saw what the other girl was doing.
“Enough drooling over her” said MJ pulling the archer into the building. “Hey, you! Come here or we’ll leave you!” she yelled at the blonde.
“What?” Bishop asked almost offended. “Of course we can’t leave her.” she said pushing her friend aside and pretending to go out to help the blonde; however, the archer didn’t manage to set foot outside the building again as the other girl ran in at full speed, crashing into her and taking them both to the ground. “Ouch, that hurt…” she complained holding the blonde’s body on top of hers and holding her by the hips. “Are you okay?” she asked once her brain recovered from the blow to the back of her head.
The screams of another student being attacked a few meters down the hallway caught everyone’s attention and, to add even more tension to the situation, knocking from the other side of the door began to be heard.
“We should go on and find a safe place.” the blonde commented, getting up from the archer and pulling her clothes so she could stand up as well. “This way.” she said, heading for the stairs to her right.
The second floor of the main classroom building was barely and only slightly less of a mess than what was going on in he cafeteria before they were able to flee from there, there were considerably less people, but they were still attacking each other and running all over the place.
They continued up the stairs in the hope that the next floor would have smaller and more manageable disaster, then to the third floor, fourth and finally fifth; being one more floor away from the end of the building and access of the roof, with no sing of the situation improving as they went up ad the possibility of not being able to return afterwards, they decided not to risk it and seek shelter on the fifth floor.
The blonde of the unexpected little survival group they had inadvertently assembled darted down the hallway first to lead the way as she kicked, punched and stabbed anyone who tried to attack her.
The new girl was definitely the strongest and also seemed the most capable of leading the others, but even she couldn’t against all the out of her mind students that crossed her path, so Parked had to react and decide quickly to go forward next to the blonde and help her.
Kate tried to do the same thing, only her brain works a little slower than the other two’s, and when she finally came up with something that might work, she ended up grabbing the fire extinguisher on the wall next to her, took the safety off, and sort of joined the battle by spraying the contents on the students who were trying to eat them alive.
“Hey, over here!” Leeds exclaimed next to the door of a classroom that appeared to be clear as far as they could see. “Quickly!”
Bishop emptied the contents of the fire extinguisher on both sides of the hallway to give them a sort of smokescreen to escape with, which worked perfectly when she and the others were finally able to catch their breath after hearing MJ close the classroom door behind them.
“Are they all okay?” Peter asked, still trying to catch his breath completely after the brief hell they had just been through.
“What the fuck was that all about?” MJ asked, no less upset. “What did the other turn into?”
“Zombies, obviously.” Ned answered. “Didn’t you see them?”
“Zombies don’t exist.” declared the only blonde in the group, trying to straighten up and control her breathing. “It’s a nonsense invented by the Americans.”
Before anyone could try to refute what the Russian-accented girl had said, or even catch their breath completely, knocking on the door just behind MJ interrupted the discussion they were having.
“Hello?” a male voice called from the other side. “Please open the door!” We’re not infected!”
MJ seemed to hesitate for a second or two, but finally began to reach out to open the door.
“Don’t even think about it!” commanded the blonde.
“Why not?” Parked questioned. “They need our help.”
“What if they are infected?”
“They said they weren’t” Leeds said. “Besides, five seconds ago you said zombies didn’t exist.”
“I don’t care what they are, they could kill us.”
“We know they’re in there!” another voice, this time female, shouted from the other side of the door. “Help us!”
The discussion ended when MJ stepped forward and opened the door, letting in six more students; the last boy to enter, wearing a lacrosse team uniform, helped close the door again while still holding his blood-covered sports stick.
“*You idiots*” the blonde muttered with the knife in Russian, then clutched the bladed weapon tighter in his hand.
“Wait a second” Kate said, stepping in front of the girl who had saved her from attacking the newcomers, “why don’t we just calm down and try to work this out like the civilized people we still are?”
“Did you forget everything that just happened out there? There is no civilized way to get out of this alive.”
“Are you guys all right?” Peter asked the new arrivals.
“None of them were bitten by one of the zombies out there, right?” Ned added.
“We’re all fine, no one was bitten” assured the white boy dressed in the lacrosse team’s uniform, still with his body blocking the door, “although some idiot did shower us with the contents of a fire extinguisher.”
Bishop exchanged a quick glance with her friends who knew that some idiot was her no more than two minutes ago. “Look on the bright side: it’s better than being bitten by a zombie” she mentioned with a nervous smile.
There was a brief silence among those present in the classroom and it was then that they became aware of the general silence that seemed to have flooded beyond the four walls that separated them from the rest of the floor; there were no more desperate cries of fear or help, only grunts and the sounds of footsteps from the other infected students.
“We are the last ones…” commented the only other boy in the group of six who had just entered the classroom. “All the others had been transformed.”
“Are you sure about that?” asked the girl of Asian descent and gothic appearance.
“Well, that’s what it looks like, we’d have to go outside to make sure.”
The blonde with the still bloody knife walked over to one of the windows to take a look outside the building. “The whole floor might be full of those things, but it’s still safer than being out there with everything that’s going on” she declared after seeing the scene in the main courtyard, making the other go to the other windows to see it their own eyes.
“Shit…” Kate muttered over the left shoulder of the young woman who had saved her in the cafeteria. “So what do we do now?”
“Call the police?” Ned proposed.
Even though they all knew that strategy never worker in zombie movies and series, they all started looking for their phones to call the emergency number.
“*Shit*” the blonde with the knife cursed in Russian. “I probably lost my phone somewhere along the way here.”
“Mine was in my training bag by the soccer field” said the young brown-haired lacrosse player.
“Hello?” Peter asked, being the first to be answered when he called the emergency number. “Yes, I’d like to report a zombie attack in…”
“Don’t say the word zombie” MJ interrupted, “no one will take you seriously.”
“And what else do you want me to call them…?” Parker questioned, trying not to sound too harsh with the girl who was practically his friend. “Yes, I know that making prank calls to the emergency services is a crime, but I assure you this is not a prank” he insisted to the person on the other end of the line. “Hello? Miss? Are you still there?” he took the phone away from his ear to look at the phone screen to see that he was still on a call. “She hung up on me” he informed the others indignantly.
“Give me that, I’ll do it.”
At the same time that MJ was waiting to be attended to by an emergency operator on her own phone and on Peter’s phone in her other ear, the rest who had already been able to get through to one were trying to explain the situation they were going through without using the word zombie so that they would believe them and send help.
After three o four minutes, when the emergency operator had sent them all to hell for no believing a single word they were saying , the classroom fell completely silent when the last one present blocked the screen of his phone.
“So what?” asked Bishop. “Are we just going to give up?”
“Let’s call out parents” suggested the Latina girl in the group. “I’m sure they’ll believe them and send help.”
“Today is the day of their Pride meeting” the young woman with the purple hair pointed out, “and everyone either silences their phones or turns them off during the meetings until they’re over for the evening.
That seemed to give an idea to the blonde in some high school sport club outfit covered in blood and with the knife in one of her hands, who snatched the phone with her free hand from the person physically closest to her: Kate Bishop.
“Hey!” the archer complained at the sudden snatch of her property. “Of course, you can borrow it.”
The thief completely ignored Kate’s complain and comment and simply brought the phone to her ear after calling the emergency number, after that she just waited.
~Girl, you and your friend need to stop playing pranks…~
The sound of an irritated man’s voice on the other end of the line did not intimidate or make the blonde think twice that interrupting him might be a bad decision.
“My name is Yelena Belova, I am the daughter of General Ivan Petrovich of the Russian exercise and, if you want to avoid an international incident of your county with Russia, you’d better do everything in your power, and more, to communicate with him and give him this number so he can get in touch with me before we are all dead, got it?”
~Miss Belova, if what you are saying is true..~
“I asked if you understood.”
~Yes, Miss Belova, I understood everything you said, but…~
“Well, you have until before I die to send help to my location or contact my father so he can call me at this number if you don’t want Russian undercover agents to come after you; and, believe me, you don’t want to know what kind of interrogation methods they are taught to do.”
The Russian ended the call after threatening the employee and handed the phone back to its owner. “You better not lose it, Kate Bishop.”
“Are you saying my first and last name to let me know that you know it and intimidate me?” questioned the archer, picking up her phone carefully.
“Yes.”
“Wait, you’re the one who knocked down the bell tower?” questioned the lacrosse player with a small smile of admiration.
“It also had a huge clock that nobody can read anymore…” Bishop added. “And I just shot an arrow to make the old bell ring, the whole tower wasn’t supposed to fall down; besides, that thing didn’t even have a warning sing or anything, it could fall down it any time and was danger to everyone so you could say I did at a favor from everyone in the institute who passed by it every day.”
“Or you released a zombie virus that was hidden in there.” Ned stated.
“This is not a movie, that bell tower was a practically abandoned high school landmark.”
“Which makes it exactly the best place to hide and create a zombie virus without anyone else in the school knowing about it.”
“Enough.” MJ said. “It doesn’t matter how or where the zombie virus was created, what we should really care about is how we get out of here alive.”
“Let’s wait for the police” Peter mentioned. “I’m sure they’ll send help as soon as they notice we didn’t get in and something’s wrong at the school.”
“What if they don’t get here in time?”
“If no one comes to help us?” Yelena asked, gaining the attention of all the other students inside the classroom.
“That’s zero optimistic, but quite realistic” commented the young Asian gothic girl after a few long seconds of silence in which everyone contemplated the Russian’s possibility. “We should wait until everything in the institute clams downs, concentrate on surviving until then and create a plan to get out of here if no one comes to helps us.”
“Zero…” Belova muttered, as if she had just had an epiphany. “The emergency operators didn’t believe them hen they said we were being attacked by zombies, which means that, if the institute isn’t where patient zero was created, we could be pretty close to the place and we’re the first survivors to report the incident.”
“So what?” the lacrosse player questioned. “I don’t think we’ll get a medal or anything for that.”
“If the institute is ground zero we might get lucky and someone will send help as soon as they realize this is real, but if we are nor ground zero and whatever is infecting people is already in the city, it’s going to make all of New York collapse in a few hours and no one will come to save us, we won’t be a priority for anyone because everyone will be too busy trying to keep themselves alive.”
“Okay, that’s a possibility, but we shouldn’t give up hope” declared the other blonde girl inside the classroom in an attempt to lift everyone’s spirits.
“Call your family” the Russian suggested, leaning her back against the wall and sliding down it until she was sitting on the floor, a little defeated, “If they’re too busy to notice what’s going on now, hopefully they’ll hear your messages on their voicemail later.”
“Could I have my phone back?” Peter asked MJ rather discouraged. “I’ll call May.”
The rest of them started calling their relatives almost at the same time while Kate, for her part, looked at her phone still with the screen off and debated with herself whether she should call her mom, or not, because they didn’t exactly have the closest relationship after her father’s death, although it wasn’t a bad mother-daughter relationship either.
In addition, there was also the possibility that Eleanor Bishop was at that moment with her fiancé and, if they were indeed in the apocalypse, it was likely that she would prefer to spend what little time she had left in this world with him and not worrying that her daughter might turn into a zombie at any moment.
After a few long seconds of deliberation, Kate decided to send a text message that ended up being shorter than perhaps it should for a possible farewell to her mother, but her words were sincere.
After she had send the text message to her mother, the archer looked at Yelena sitting against the wall next to her, who was still holding the knife she had taken from the cafeteria and with which she had stabbed over a dozen zombies.
Bishop sat down on the floor next to Belova with slow, careful movement because, as cute as she thought the girl was, she was a little scary, especially with her high school sports outfit covered in blood as well as part of her face and hands.
“You can use my phone if you want” Kate offered, extending the device toward the Russian.
Yelena stared silently at the object in the archer’s hand for a couple of seconds before shaking her head slightly. “My father is in Russia and I never bothered to learn his phone number in case of emergency” she said as she returned her gaze to the front. “My sister, hopefully, is still across town celebrating winning the gymnastics competition and I don’t remember her number either.”
“You have a sister? Great” Bishop commented, tucking her phone into the pocket of her seater from her own high school sport outfit. “I’m an only child” she added in an attempt to start a conversation that would keep her from watching others leave voicemails for their loved ones.
“I know.”
Kate turned her head toward the blonde so fast she almost broke her neck. “Do you know?” she asked in confusion. “Have we met or talked before? Because I’m sure I’d remember you.”
“You don’t go as unnoticed in high school as you think you do, you’re as recognizable as Tony Stark, and having recently brought down a bell tower has others talking about you even if you weren’t a rich girl heiress to a big company with your last name in its name.
“Oh…” murmured the archer not knowing what to say in response to that statement.
“Besides, my sister is best friends with a friend of yours on the archery team.”
“A friend of mine?”
“Barton, Clint Barton” the Russian clarified. “He sometimes talks about you and his other teammates when they do something he thinks is great.”
“Clint considers me his friend and thinks I do cool stuff?” Bishop questioned enthusiastically. “All this time I thought I was making a fool of myself in front of him and acting like one of those slightly scary fans…” she said, being more thoughts out loud than statements for the conversations she was having with the blonde. “Wait a second, your sister is Natasha Romanoff? Red Angel?”
“She likes to be called Red Dead or Black Widow better, she says they sound more intimidating.”
“Are you on a sport team too?” Kate asked, looking at the sports outfit just like the one she was wearing, although Yelena’s was much more bloodstained.
“Gymnastics, just like my sister” Belova stated wit a small smile. “In fact, I should also be in that competition with her, but I had an injury two weeks ago and the doctor along with the trainer said I should take a break to fully recover.”
“I didn’t get to go to the sport team competition either, it’s part of my punishment for knocking down that old steeple” the archer mentioned. “Although I keep thinking about how I’ve never seen you before… You’re someone hard to ignore and I’m sure I would have noticed you right away.”
“We train on different floors on the building, and usually sports team competition are not in the same place and on the same date like today, plus my sister usually hangs out and spends a lot of time with the archery team playing arrow shooting with Barton, the two of them are very serious about being best friends.”
“Well, I guess that explains it all pretty well.”
There were a few seconds of silence in which Yelena watched as the others were scattered around the classroom while holding their phones taped to the side of their heads, talking in a low tone so as not to attract the attention of the zombies outside and especially so the others wouldn’t hear their conversation; all with the exception of Bishop, Belova and the lacrosse player who didn’t have a phone.
“Why didn’t you call anyone?” asked the Russian finally turning her gaze the archer sitting next to her on the floor.
Kaye was noticeably uncomfortable about the personal question, even considering that, coupled with the fact that she had barely known Yelena for less than a half an hour, as an excuse for not having to answer it, but the truth was that they seemed to be in the middle of a zombie apocalypse and could die at any moment, so their personal problems no longer seemed so important in comparison.
“I don’t want to worry my mother anymore, we’ve both been through enough with my father’s death and worrying about her daughter possibly being in the middle of a bad acid trip that could ruin her archery career and school life is the last thing she needs to hear for the sake of her mental health… I wan her not to worry about me for one, especially at the apparent end of the world.”
Yelena had the impulse to at least try to comfort the Bishop; however, that seemed to be the best time for her brain to decide to have an epiphany after her brain caught up with all the conversation they had had.
“Hey, wait a second, you’re friend with Barton, do you have his number?”
The archer took a second to process the rejection of her words that, for the first time in a long time, came from her heart and forced herself to follow the new topic of conversation.
“Yeah, I think so, he should be in the general group of the archery team” Kate replied, starting to look up Clint’s number in her phone’s data. “Here it is” she said when she found it, extending the device again to the blonde sitting next to her.
Belova quickly picked up the phone, pressed the contact and waited desperately for Barton or someone to answer the call.
~Kate?~
“No” replied the Russian in a slightly more curt manner, “is Natasha with you?”
~Yelena?~
“Yes, is my sister with you or not?”
There was a couple of seconds of silence in which the blonde thought the other archer had hung up on her for her attitude and almost cursed in a scream.
~We’ve already talked about trying to be less rude to Clint.~
The little scolding from Romanoff felt like a real relief to her younger sister.
“Nat, where are you?”
~We are on the bus back to the institute, why?”
“*Tell them not to come back, find a safe place and call Ivan to send someone to look for you*” said Belova, although this time she spoke in Russian.
~*Why would I do that? What the hell is going on at the high school? Everyone’s getting strange phone calls from over there*~
“*You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.*”
~*Yelena*~
The blonde was about to answer, but stopped herself for a second as she realized the word that was about to come out her mouth and that she had so far refused to accept as real.
“*Zombies, there are zombies in the school.*”
Another silence flooded the conversation through the call line until the Russian on the other end finally answered.
~*I’m glad you have friends to make these kinds of jokes with, but really, asking me to call Ivan for a non-existent emergency?*~
“*This is very serious, believe me*” Yelena asked almost in a plea. “*I’m not sure what’s going on, but it’s almost like those American movies Alexei liked so much, only worse and, honestly, I doubt anyone will get out for high school alive*” the mention of her sister’s ex made the whole conversation more serious, it was a rule not written or said by either of them that its mere mention was almost forbidden. “*Call Ivan and find a safe place to take refuge.*”
~*I’ll call Ivan and I’ll go get you out of the institute, we are close…*~
“*No, don’t come for me, it’s practically suicide.*”
~*Stay in a safe place and keep the phone you’re calling me from with you, when I’m there I’m there I’ll call you to come and get you, got it?*~
“*But, Nat…*”
~*If you are near a window leave a sing and I will come and get you; remember everything they taught us in those military camps Ivan forced us to go and stay alive, okay? I promise I won’t be long; I’ll see you in a minute.*~
“*No, Nat, wait…*” Belova asked her sister, but she didn’t get any answer. “*Nat?*” at the silence she looked at the phone screen and saw that her sister had indeed ended the call, leaving her talking to herself.
Yelena cursed under her breath in Russian and almost threw the phone in her hand to the other end of the classroom.
“Are you all right?” Bishop asked worriedly. “Did she believe you? What did she say?”
“Yes, she believed me” the Russian replied, handing the phone back to the archer before she somehow ended up smashing it. “She said the bus wasn0t far from the instituted and that she would came to pick me up, which is stupid and suicidal, but she had a habit of never listening to anyone and that shouldn’t surprise me.”
“My sister also said she was coming” the young Asian girl declared, “so your sister not the only suicidal idiot.”
“At least she’ll call out father” Yelena commented more to herself in an attempt to reassure herself. “If he believes her and doesn’t think she’s in the middle of some acid trip, he might contact his government and pressure them to investigate and deploy a contingency plan and rescue survivors.”
“That’s a good things, that’s good news, isn’t it?” questioned the other blonde, the tall girl who came in with the second group.
“Technically, but it won’t be a quick process.”
“How long could it take to send someone to rescue us?” Ned asked.
“The contingency is the easy part, they won’t let anyone in or out of the city via the bridges and main roads, then they will lock everyone in the city by arming a full perimeter with, most likely, the most powerful and advanced military equipment they have available within and hour or so; however, on the other hand, any rescue operation could take days, if we are lucky.”
“Days?” repeated the purple-haired girl. “Plural?”
“They won’t bring anyone into the city other then to reconnoiter, capture one of those things and then study it to determine what they’re up against and if it’s something they could win against.”
“But they can’t leave us here to our own devices” Peter said.
“This is unlike anything humanity has faced before, this is not a conventional bullet and missile war between ordinary humans, this could be a virus that, if they are not careful, they could lose more than a city, a stadium or even a country; even if they find a cure or figure out how could be just collateral damage from the time it will take them to figure out how to beat something they have never fought before.”
“So, that’s it?” asked Kate in disappointment. “We wait and try not to die trying?”
“It seems to be the only reliable plan until we get any information from outside or someone comes to out rescue.”
Everyone was silent for a moment, hearing only the grunts of the zombies in the hallway outside the classroom and some lone distant scream from someone who was quite likely about to die.
“Well, if we’re going to spend some time together, I suppose we should start getting to know each other” the tall blonde proposed.
“Yes, that sounds like a good start” Peter said. “I’m Peter, Peter Parker, this is Ned Leeds, my best friend” he pointed to the young man on his right; “this is MJ; she’s out friend too, although she says she’s not” this time he pointed to the brunette tea girl on his left. “I think you all know Kate form the bell tower and this is… Yelena Belova?”
“That’s right, Spidey-boy” the Russian replied.
“Oh, come on, not even in a zombie apocalypse are they going to forget about that?”
“No, it was a really fun thing to watch, though I give you bonus points for how you beat up those zombies to protect your friends and make it this far” Yelena declared with a small smile before turning to the girl sitting next to her. “You too, Kate Bishop, I though you only knew how to shoot arrows and ere a *pretty face*.”
Bishop was a little taken aback by the sudden compliment, even her cheeks took on a slightly reddish hue, but then her brain caught up with everything the blonde had said to her and the last words in Russian that she didn’t understand.
“Thank you, but what does the last thing mean?” questioned the confused archer.
“Never mind; don’t worry, I assure you it was a compliment.”
“And who are you?” Peter asked the second group.
“Karolina Dean” the tall blonde introduced herself with a pleasant smile, although she looked a little worn; “this is Nico Minoru” she pointed to the Asian gothic girl, who barely raised her hand in a greeting sing; “this is Gert Yorkes and Molly Hayes, sister” she added pointing to the purple-haired girl and the Latina girl; “and this is Chase Stein and Alex Wilder” she finished pointing to the white boy with the lacrosse uniform and the brown-haired boy with a slim tan and a rather afro hairstyle.
“The Pride boys, of course” Belova muttered more to herself, though everyone heard her. “I knew I’d seen them before.”
“The Pride boys?” Minoru questioned with a frown. “Is that what the others call us?”
“You give a bit to talk about because your parents seem to be best friend and you guys barely cross eyes when you’re in the same place” said Kate.
“Just because we were friend as kids doesn’t mean we should stay friends; besides, it all got awkward when Chase told Karolina he’d been in love with her since we were kids and the she rejected him, and the rest of us just didn’t want to take sides.”
“Nico!” Gert exclaimed in a scolding tone.
“Please, we’re in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, can we stop ignoring the reasons why we’re estranged” said the goth. “It’s as terribly obvious as Alex’s crush on my sister.”
“I don’t like Amy” Wilder defended himself. “We just didn’t grow apart and we’re still friends, unlike all of you.”
“Great, just when a thought things couldn’t get any worse, this turned into some kind of group therapy of rich kids’ childhood problems…” commented Yelena, a little more irritable, aloud. “I’d better see what I can find that might be useful” she said before standing up and heading over to the professor’s desk to rummage through his drawers.
Right in the middle of the Pride boys’ little discussion and Belova’s search for anything that could be used as a weapon, a voice on the speakers throughout the floor, and possibly the entered building, echoed through the speakers.
~If there are still those who can hear me, please hold on; I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m sure help is on its way and someone will come to rescue us… Let’s not lose hope.~
“Was that the history teacher’s voice?” asked Molly.
“Yes, it was Professor Coulson” answered Alex. “He must be in the broadcast room on the second floor, just below us.”
The Russian of the now group of eleven that were and were in that classroom, ignored the conversation that seemed irrelevant to her and decided to approach the door to try to see through the opaque glass window with the intention of finding out why the infected had started running again.
“What’s going on?” Bishop questioned over Yelena’s shoulder, peering out of the window that barely gave a glimpse of what was of the other side.
“I’m not entirely ruse” Belova admitted, not bothered by the proximity of the archer right behind her. “Come, help me” she said as she turned around and pushed the girl by the shoulders a couple of steps to the right of the door, just below the first window almost to the ceiling. “Put your hands clasped together and don’t drop me” she ordered in a serious tone.
Kate took a second to process and do what the blonde in front of her told her, feeling almost immediately afterwards the Russian’s weight on her hands, which was more than the young foreigner’s size and build.
“What do you see?” MJ asked.
“They’re huddled under the speakers trying to reach them and they don’t seem too smart to jump or realize that’s not food for them.”
“Well, the dead aren’t known for thinking much.”
“Not for walking around and eating other people either” Yelena finally got off Bishop’s hands, “but if they’re as dumb as they look, them if we stay here and don’t make too much noise to attract them, we’ll be fine.”
Before anyone could comment aby further on the matter, Kate’s phone began to vibrate inside her pocket, which made her move quickly to pull out the device and answer the video call she was receiving.
“Clint?” asked Bishop immediately after answering the call.
~Where is Yelena?~ Natasha Romanoff asked as soon as the archer face appeared on her screen and not that of her sister.
Belova snatched the phone form Kate almost instantly after hearing her sister’s voice. “Nat, where are you?” she questioned as soon as she held the smart device in both hands, then walked to the window facing the outside of the building to make sure she had better reception.
~We’re in one of the bathrooms in the cafeteria building… we had to hide when those things started to surround us.~
“The cafeteria? That’s possibly the worst place to be in the whole school.”
~That information would have been very relevant three minutes ago when we didn’t know where to go; thanks for bringing it up until now.~
“You were the one hung up on me last time.”
~Girls, this is not the best time to fight amongst yourselves.~ interjected Barton.
~Stay out of it, Clint~ warned the redhead; ~we could have died because she didn’t mention that information or that these zombies can run as fast as a fully alive person and they weren’t like in the movies.~
~In fact, in the World War Z movie the zombies also run~ mentioned a third voice.
“Amy?” Nico called when she heard her sister’s voice.
~Wait, is my sister with your sister?~ asked the eldest Minoru before picking up Barton’s phone. ~Nico, are you okay?~
“Yes, we are all fine.”
~Hey, just a second, Laura’s calling me~ interrupted Clint, reaching for his phone to join his girlfriend on the video call.
~Who are you?~ asked the brunette when she saw the face of an unknown girls instead of her boyfriend.
~Hello, honey~ Barton greeted. ~I’ll be coming for you soon, we’re already inside the institute.~
~Thank God you’re okay; we saw dead zombies with arrows in their heads out the window and we knew it was you.~
~Why the hell did you go into the school knowing what was going on?~ chided another girl’s voice, an off-camera one. ~You should have gone to get help from outside.~
~When have the police ever done anything right?~ Romanoff questioned before getting his best friend’s phone back in her hands. ~Where the hell are you guys?~
~At the audio-visual club with Professor Coulson~ declared the one they could now identify as Pepper Potts. ~Where are you guys? Have you seen Tony?~
~We hid in one of the bathrooms in the cafeteria building and didn’t see any zombies with a weird mustache and beard on the way here, so you boyfriend may still be walking around trying not to get bitten~ Natasha reported back to her conversation with her sister. ~Yelena, where are you guys?~
“Main class building, fifth floor” answered the blonde Russian girl.
~How many of those things in the building?”~
“I don’t know, but there are too many of the for you get here by yourself.”
~She won’t go alone~ Clint commented.
“They’re still too many, especially without weapons to deal with them.”
~We’ve got arrows~ the archer moved closed to his best friend so they could see each other on the video call as well, through almost immediately both of their brows furrowed and the chestnut brought one of his hands to the screen of his phone. ~Tony?~
~Hey, Legolas!~ the young philanthropist greeted. ~Please tell me you and Red are still out of school.~
~Tony?!~ exclaimed Potts.
~Peps! I’m so glad you’re alive; I swear I was going to call you after I talked to Clint, I’m just looking for reinforcements form outside.~
~We’re at the institute just like you guys~ interrupted Romanoff before the pair could start a conversation or a fight. ~but I already called my dad to let him know what’s going on and luckily he believed me.~
~Great! General Red will send a team of Russian Rambos for us.~
~It won’t be as simple as that, it may take him more than a day to reach an agreement with your country to ley you perform on American soil.~
~Wait, Goldilocks is calling me, he’s alive!~ exclaimed Stark before getting his friend to join the call as well. ~Thor, good thing you’re not a zombie, we couldn’t have taken you, big guy.~
~Folks, do any of you have any idea what’s going on?~ asked the eldest Odinson, appearing on screen next to his brother. ~Suddenly everyone just went crazy.~
~What does it matter happened to them?~ interrupted Loki. ~Does anyone have any idea how to get out for his damned place that was already hell before?~
~Exit could be more dangerous~ reported Pepper. ~There was a viral video of a girl in a high school uniform attacking a nurse and a group of security guards at a nearby hospital and after that here have been videos of supposed zombies in the cite streets; most think it’s fake or an advertising campaign.~
~Have they left the institute yet?~ Natasha questioned with noticeable concern before saying something in Russian that was surely colorful words even for her native language. ~All right, listen up, we might not have much time before your government realizes this is really over and declares a city-wide martial law where no one and nothing will leave or enter the perimeter they do, including phone and internet signals.~
~What?! They can’t take away out internet!~ complained Tony, looking more worried about that than the zombies. ~How am I supposed to google or watch youtube video tutorials on how to survive a zombie apocalypse?~
~We’ll have to manage on our own~ Romanoff declared to shut the millionaire up, ~Listen everyone, we need to gather in one place to have a better chance of survival; there are seven of us and we’re in the cafeteria bathrooms, but the building is a mess with those things all over the place.~ she said taking the lead of the situation. ~Yelena, how many are in you group?~
“Eleven in a classroom on the fifth floor of the main building” reported they youngest Russia. “One of us says we’re right above the audio-visual room.”
~Well, that gives me an idea of where on the floor they are…~ Natasha muttered more to herself. ~Pepper and Laura, how many are with you?~
~There are ten of us and Professor Coulson in the audio-visual room.~
~Thor and Loki, how many are there and where are they?~
~There are seven of us in the part of the bell tower building that was not destroyed~ stated the youngest Odinson.
~Stark?~
~Ten in the gymnasium~ said Tony before losing the seriousness of the conversation. ~Wait, aren’t there too many of us? Because in the movies, the survivors are always less.~
~We’re not in a movie and more of us together will gave us a better chance of survival, though we need to be in a place with enough resources and supplies for everyone; the cafeteria would be my first choice if I hadn’t just seen what’s packed with those things.~
~What about the teacher’s lounge on he second floor?~ proposed the only adult who could hear the conversation. ~We always have food there and there’s a private bathroom.~
~In the gym we have first aid kits, bathrooms, showers, changers of clothes, and maybe enough protein bars for everyone for a few days~ mentioned Stark. ~And we can use the safety mast as makeshift beds, not to mention we’ll have more room.~
~Sounds like the best place~ supported Natasha. ~Since we’re the farthest away and the only ones with the closest thing to weapons, we’ll go through the ones in the bell tower, then the ones in the main building, and finally we’ll all go to the gym~ she organized quickly, saving herself from thinking about the details for the moment. ~Tony, how many things can you see in the open space of the sport fields between the main building and the gyn?~
Stark paused briefly to approach the nearest window and look outside. ~Like a quarter of the students in the high school…~
~Well, you guys will have to put together a plan for us to get through the zombies camp with everything you have available while we get through the others.~
~Of course, no pressure because we obviously have a whole military team here.~
~Aren’t you supposed to be some kind of genius or something? Figure out how we’re going to get across that field without dying in the attempt.~
~Okay, all right, I’ll see what I can come up with.~
~Wait!~ exclaimed Scott, stepping into Tony’s camera frame. ~Hope says she’s in the main building in the chemistry lab with four other students.~
~If I remember correctly, the chemistry lab is on the sext floor~ mentioned Barton looking at his best friend.
~That means we’ll have to go through the second, fifth and six floors of the main building to pick everyone up~ Romanoff muttered, reassembling her plan in her mind with the new information. ~Which complicates everything even more, but we’ll manage when we get there.~
~Scotty?!~ exclaimed a young man who was with Clint and Natasha. ~Is that you, bro? Are you still alive?~
~Hey, don’t scream or you’ll draw the zombies to us~ Amy scolded.
~Luis?~ Lang called when he recognized his friend’s voice. ~Is that you?~
~Yeah, it’s me, bro; you won’t believe what happened, Kurt got bitten and I almost had to kill him with a broomstick, which would have been cool if it wasn’t Kurt.~
~Kurt’s dead?~
~Yes, brother, the redhead pierced his head with one of her arrows.~
~I saved your life~ Romanoff pointed out.
~Yes, but you killed my friend and then you almost killed me.~
~Right now I’m regretting that I didn’t release that arrow…~
~All right, that’s enough~ interjected Barton. ~Fighting each other won’t help us get out of this alive.~
~Okay, let’s go see if the zombies have already dispersed and we can get out of the building~ declared Natasha. ~Everyone else should wait and not do anything stupid, okay?~
“Why do I feel like you´re looking at me on the screen?” Yelena asked.
~Yes, I’m doing it~ the red-haired Russian asserted. ~You’ll have to wait for us to come for you with a plan, it’s not safe for you to try to get out on your own.~
“It looks like something we can do” Ned mentioned.
~If you don’t have chargers for you phones, don’t use them too much, we need to try to keep in touch with each while we can, go it?~
~Wait, why are you the leader in this?~ questioned a distant voice new to the conversation.
~Because I know how to keep us all alive; if you don’t want to follow us, then don’t~ replied Romanoff looking to the side before returning her attention to her best friend’s phone screen. ~The rest of you put your phone on vibrate, send text messages with updates if necessary and call only of it’s an emergency and you’re in a safe place to talk.~
~I’ll set up a group chat so you can add all the phones you have available so we all know what’s going on with each other~ informed Clint. ~Do what ‘Tasha said and wait for us to come get you.~
Belova left the group video call because she knew there was nothing else that might be important to say and, if there was, surely her sister would take care of texting her to remind her that they should wait.
“Your sister is great” Molly declared excitedly.
“And cute…” added Nico, earning a confused look from everyone present for the unexpected comment, especially from Karolina who was standing next to her. “What? She is.”
“I support her on that” admitted Chase.
“Okay, stop drooling over her in front of me” Yelena said “She’s my big sister.”
The sudden sound of one of the zombies stumbling through the classroom door made everyone forget what they were talking about and nearly gave them a heart attack.
“I swear I saw my life flash before my eyes” Ned commented.
“That must have been a lousy, boring movie” said MJ, “it would probably be a Razzie winner.”
“Fuck what Natasha said” commented Belova suddenly, “I’m not going to stand here and do nothing.”
“Wait, what?” asked Kate.