Gen Z Boxed Set

by Baileigh Higgins

  “What was?” Chas asked, thoroughly confused. “Nearly getting eaten on the Ferris wheel, almost falling to our deaths, or stealing a car?”

  “You, silly. You were great, driving the van and getting us out of trouble like that. We’re alive because of you, Chas,” Vanessa said.

  Chas sighed, exhaustion settling over her shoulders as all the adrenaline suddenly drained away. She flopped down on the nearest bench and rubbed her hands over her face. “Yeah, well. We’re not out of the woods yet. I’d better call Lala. She’ll know what to do.”

  As one, they all fished for their phones, dialing their various family members for help. Chas tried her house, then their cell phones, and finally, the police before giving up. “I can’t get through. All I get is the busy signal.”

  “Me too,” Emily admitted.

  “Same here,” Vanessa said with a shrug. “Seems like we’re on our own for now.”

  “But…we can’t!” Emily burst out, close to tears again. “We’re just kids. I need my mom.”

  Vanessa clucked her tongue. “It’s all right, Emily. We’re not babies anymore. We can think for ourselves. The adults don’t always get it right.”

  Emily stared at her like she’d grown a third head. “What?”

  “It’s true. They are the ones that started this whole thing with that contaminated meat story, and they’re the ones trying to eat us,” Vanessa said. “Besides, you’re the smartest person I know, Emily. Use your brain.”

  Emily looked taken aback, but after a while, she nodded. Chas watched the whole thing and had to admit Vanessa had a point. “You’re right, Vanessa. We’re in this alone. At least, until we can get home. So, how do we get out of here? Those things are everywhere.”

  “What are they?” Andrew burst out. “Those aren’t people anymore. Macy, she…my sister’s dead. She’s dead!”

  Chas stared at him, not sure what to say. “I’m sorry, Andrew. I really am.”

  “I think they’re zombies,” Emily said before going to the wash basin and opening the tap. Everybody turned to stare at her while she meticulously washed her hands and face.

  “Zombies?” Andrew asked.

  “That’s what I said. Think about it. They get sick, change into monsters, and try to eat people. They don’t think, they don’t recognize their friends, and they don’t seem to feel pain. That’s a zombie, in my book.”

  “She’s right!” Vanessa cried. “Who’d have thought? A zombie apocalypse and we’re right in the middle of it.”

  “You don’t have to look so happy about it,” Emily grumbled. “It’s no joke. People are dying.”

  “I know. Sorry,” Vanessa said, shooting Andrew an apologetic look, though Chas could see the excited gleam in her eyes. Out of them all, Vanessa had the most taste for adventure.

  “Do you think they’re infectious?” Chas asked of Emily.

  “I’m sure of it. I saw a few people turn after being attacked,” Emily said.

  “Me too,” Vanessa added.

  “Right,” Chas said, standing up. “Here’s what we know. These zombies, let’s just call them that for now, like to eat people. If they see us, they’ll attack. If they bite us, we’ll become one of them.”

  “Maybe even if they scratch us or get blood in our eyes or mouth,” Emily intervened. “For all we know, this disease is transmitted via blood and saliva and can be absorbed through the mucous membranes too.”

  Crickets.

  “Um, what she said,” Chas replied. “Our first priority is getting back home. Agreed?”

  Everybody nodded.

  “To do that, we need to get off the fairgrounds. Question is, how do we do that? The gates are blocked, and the place is swarming with zombies.”

  “We jump the fence,” Vanessa said. “The one right behind the Haunted House.”

  “The Haunted House?” Chas asked, not relishing the idea.

  “Yeah, it’s right against the fence and on the opposite side of the gates where most of the zombies are. If we go through the Haunted House, we can exit through the back door and climb over. Easy peasy.”

  “Why can’t we stay here?” Emily asked. “The police are sure to come sooner or later.”

  “We don’t know that, and what about our families? We have to warn them before they become infected too. My grandpa was supposed to come pick us up. What if he gets caught up in this?” Chas said, thinking about her grandparents.

  She couldn’t bear them becoming monsters. No way. What about Mom? She’s working night shift at the hospital. A building full of theses sick people.

  “What if we get attacked?” Andrew asked.

  “Mm, we’ll need to defend ourselves,” Chas said. “I’ve got my knife. You guys look for anything in here you can use for a weapon.”

  “Aim for the head. If the disease is in the brain, that’s what you need to destroy,” Emily said. “And we should tie cloths over our mouths, and try not to get bitten or scratched.”

  “Got it. Now let’s get going,” Chas said. “Before anything else happens.”

  As the rest scurried around, preparing to leave, Chas reflected that she was now responsible for the lives of not only her best friends but also a complete stranger. It was up to her to get them out, no matter how scared she was. You can do it, Chasity. Chin up, eyes forward.

  Chapter 4

  Armed with her knife, Chas cracked open the bathroom door and peered out into the gloom. Night had fallen, and darkness reigned. In the sky above, a tapestry of silver lights twinkled, the stars coming out to play, but they were cold and distant. Unfriendly.

  The moon was just over a quarter full and cast little illumination on the ground below. She narrowed her eyes, hoping to spot any zombies nearby, but it was impossible to see anything. Further out, there was light, cast by the rides and lamps set up around the grounds, but close by everything was thrown in a soupy sea of murk.

  She saw no movement either, no zombies, and closed the door with a soft click. “It’s very dark outside, guys. I can’t see a thing all around us.”

  “I know which way the Haunted House is,” Vanessa said. “You just need to follow me. Once we get close, there should be lights.”

  “But what about the zombies?” Chas asked.

  “If we can’t see them, they probably can’t see us,” Emily offered. “Unless they’ve developed super eyesight, of course.”

  “I mean, what if they attack?” Chas said.

  “Aim for the head. All zombie lore says so, and it can’t hurt. Destroy the brain, and the zombie is dead.” Emily whacked an imaginary foe with her looted weapon, looking surprisingly fierce with her glasses perched on the edge of her nose.

  “Comforting,” Chas said with a faint smile as she eyed the little group. They looked ridiculous in the pale moonlight that streamed in through the high windows, a ragtag bunch of kids trying to do the impossible.

  Vanessa was armed with a towel railing, Emily with the wooden leg from one of the benches, and Andrew with the porcelain lid from a toilet cistern. They all wore cloths around their mouths too. That wasn’t what made them look so funny, however. It was the toilet paper wrapped around their bare arms and necks that made them look like mummies from a B-grade movie. Andrew wore shorts so even his skinny legs were covered, pieces of it trailing behind him. She doubted the flimsy paper would help much even though they’d rolled it on in multiple layers, but it boosted their confidence which was something, she supposed.

  “All right. Vanessa, you take the lead. The rest of you, stick close and don’t get lost,” Chas said, moving aside for her friend.

  After a quick look outside, Vanessa slipped through the opening on silent feet, and after a second’s hesitation, Chas followed. As she left the relative safety of the ablution blocks, a worm of fear made its way into her stomach where it wiggled uncomfortably.

  Her feet moved of their own accord, following after the fleeing figure of Vanessa, and her sweaty palm clutched the knife like it was a lifelin
e. Emily and Andrew were close behind her, and together they dodged around the parked minibus, and the spot Andrew’s sister had fallen. As expected, the girl’s body was gone. She’d most likely reanimated. All that remained was a damp patch of earth that Chas knew was blood. Andrew’s breath hitched in his throat, but otherwise, he stayed silent, and her estimation of him went up a notch or two.

  They crossed the open ground in a flash, dodging the pools of light thrown by lamps and rides. All around them in the corners the darkness loomed, hiding unknown terrors, and it was with immense relief that Chas spotted the Haunted House not far away, its sign flashing neon red.

  They ducked through the entrance, and immediately a skeleton jumped out at them with a wicked cackle. Chas managed not to scream, but Emily emitted a little squeak while Andrew whimpered.

  “Ignore the scares, guys. It’s fake,” Vanessa whispered.

  Chas rolled her eyes. Of course, it wasn’t real, but with zombies on the loose, their every sense was on high alert. Not jumping at such things would be impossible.

  They made their way past the ticket booth and deeper into the building, dodging spiders, skeletons, mummies, hanging bodies, and figures carrying bloody axes and chainsaws. The sounds were deafening, the lights bright, and by the time they reached the mirror maze, Chas’ nerves were shot.

  “Stick with me, guys. I know the way through,” Vanessa said. “Don’t get lost.”

  Chas wondered in passing how Vanessa knew so much about the Haunted House and resolved to ask later. Once we make it out of this.

  The mirror maze was awful. Chas looked at fat and thin versions of herself, tall and short, bubble-shaped and oblong. The worst was the way it twisted and folded in on itself, reflecting open doors and passages that weren’t there.

  Vanessa disappeared around a turn, and Chas sped up while trying to find her, but no such luck. When she looked back, both Emily and Andrew were gone too, and she paused, wondering which way to go. Every move she made was a dead-end, and her friends had disappeared like mist beneath the sun.

  “Vanessa? Emily?” she whispered.

  An answering growl caused the hair on the back of her neck rise, and Chas whirled in time to see a zombie reach for her with long fingers. It must have been the ticket-booth attendant, a guy in his twenties with lanky hair and a name tag that said, ‘Eddie’.

  Eddie lurched for her, and Chas jumped backward with a cry only to smash into the mirror behind her. The glass vibrated, singing a weird tune into the silence of the maze where it was picked up by the other mirrors. The Eddie zombie grabbed her by the shirt, tearing the material as it pulled her toward its eager mouth.

  “Let go!” Acting on instinct, Chas kicked him between the legs just like her uncle had taught her to do when attacked, but nothing happened. Eddie kept pulling, his teeth gnashing at the air, clicking like Morse code.

  She remembered Emily’s advice and stabbed him in the head with her knife. The point jabbed into his forehead just above the left eye but slid to the side when it couldn’t pierce the bone. With a sob of panic, Chas stabbed the zombie over and over again, blood spattering from the cuts she made and coating her toilet paper-wrapped arms in a cloud of crimson droplets. A lucky strike buried the knife blade deep inside Eddie’s eye socket, and he stiffened for a second before slumping to the ground.

  Chas pulled her weapon free and fled, running into one shiny version of herself after the other. She was lost, and tears of frustration streamed down her cheeks as panic filled her chest. A hand grasped her shoulder, and she screamed, raising her knife high in the air, ready to strike.

  “Chas, stop. It’s me! Vanessa,” a voice cried.

  “Vanessa,” Chas gasped. “I’m so glad to see you.”

  “I was afraid we’d lost you,” her friend cried, her brown eyes wide with worry. “Come on. The rest are waiting for us by the exit.”

  Chas followed Vanessa out of the maze, and they ducked through a door that said ‘Staff Only’ followed by another that led outside into the fresh night air. She was so relieved to be out of the nightmarish mirror-land that she stopped worrying about zombies. Stopped worrying about anything other than escape.

  Emily greeted her with a glad cry. “Where were you? I was worried sick.”

  “I’m okay,” Chas replied, managing a shaky laugh.

  “Glad you made it,” Andrew said with a shy nod.

  “Come on, guys. There’s time for chit-chat later. Let’s get out of here,” Vanessa said, putting her words into action by climbing the chain-link fence.

  Chas and the rest followed, dropping to the ground on the other side. They looked around, their relief to be out of the fairgrounds uniform. With most of the place blocked by the hulking Haunted House, it seemed like a distant nightmare.

  Chas pulled out her phone, horrified to see it was almost nine in the evening. “Grumps was supposed to pick us up at eight. What if he…what if they got him?”

  “I’m sure they didn’t, Chasity. Your grandpa is tough and way too clever for those stupid zombies. I bet you he’s driving around looking for you, or he went to the police,” Vanessa said.

  The words did little to ease Chas’ fears as she dialed her grandfather’s number. Nothing. No signal. Nor did Emily or Vanessa have any luck. Andrew had lost his phone somewhere along the line, but that didn’t matter much when there was no signal anyway.

  “So, what now?” Andrew asked.

  Chas sighed and looked around. They were standing in a field covered in brittle grass, clumps of brush, and a belt of spruce trees in the distance. It was that time of year when rain was scarce, and the cracked red earth offered little in the way of nourishment.

  Red Rock lay to the East, a scattered pocket of bright lights under the sky with the fairgrounds abutting it. Even at this distance, she could hear sirens blaring, and a column of flames spoke of a fire burning somewhere.

  “I guess we make our way home. Hopefully, things aren’t so bad in town, and the police managed to isolate the infected,” Chas said.

  “My house is the closest,” Vanessa said. “If my foster parents are okay, they can drive the rest of you home.”

  “All right. Let’s head there then,” Chas said, striking out. “Just be careful. We don’t know if there are more zombies out here in the open.”

  “I vote we give the gates a wide berth too,” Emily said.

  “Amen to that,” Chas agreed, not looking forward to another brush with death.

  As she walked, she pulled off the bloodsoaked toilet paper that covered her arms with a shudder. She’d never forget that moment when Eddie, or what used to be him, attacked her. He’d been so fast, so…vicious.

  Somehow, killing him didn’t feel like a victory, but a loss. What if everyone she knew turned into those monsters? Would she be able to stop them if it was her mom or dad? Uncle Al? Lala or Grumps? I don’t think so. I love them. I could never hurt them.

  But, what if it was her or them? What if they tried to hurt her friends? What then? She looked at Emily, picking her way over tussocks of grass with her face screwed up in fierce concentration. There was Vanessa too, her tough exterior hiding a heart of gold, and shy Andrew who’d just lost his sister. They counted on her, and she couldn’t let them down. Not now. Not ever. I’ll do what I have to, when I have to. That’s a promise.

  Chapter 5

  Chas led the way across the open field, heading to town, and hopefully, her family. She was careful to angle away from the entrance to the fairgrounds, not wanting to run into any of the zombies that had thronged there earlier that day. She could only hope that Vanessa was right, and her grandfather had not gotten caught up in the chaos. “Please, be at home, Grumps. You and Lala. I need you to be safe.”

  It wasn’t just her grandparents she was worried about either. It was her mom and dad too, but mostly her mom. Her parents were divorced, and her dad lived pretty far away so she didn’t see him much. Her mother worked insane hours at the hospital. Living with Lala
and Grumps made it easier for both her and Chas, but tonight, she’d be in serious danger at the hospital with all the sick people. And what about Uncle Al and his family who lived in the next town over?

  At one point, Vanessa walked next to her, and Chas asked, “How come you knew so much about the Haunted House?”

  Vanessa shrugged. “I was there with Dean yesterday.”

  “Dean? Your next-door-neighbor, Dean?”

  “That’s the one. He’s been helping out there after school for extra bucks and asked if I wanted to check it out. So I did.” Vanessa’s tone of voice was bland, but Chas could read the underlying excitement that shivered there.

  She punched Vanessa on the arm. “Why didn’t you tell me? Spill. Now. I want to know all the details.”

  “There’s nothing to tell. He asked my foster parents if I could join him, and they said yes, but only for the afternoon. He showed me around, and afterward, took me home.”

  “That’s it?” Chas asked with more than a hint of disbelief. She knew all about Dean, the dreamy tenth-grader who lived next-door to Vanessa. He had the cutest smile, and Chas knew her friend had a crush on him. They all did to some extent, but she’d never have thought he’d actually talk to any one of them. They were only eighth-graders, after all. Far beneath his notice.

  Then again…

  Chas looked at Vanessa. Really looked, and had to admit that her friend was not only a year older, and so close to Dean’s age, but also very pretty with her piercing blue eyes and straight black hair. She was tall too, with the long legs of a model.

  Chas sighed, thinking of her own reflection in the mirror. Strawberry blonde with brown eyes, she was pretty enough, but possessed all the grace of a bull in a china shop and couldn’t dance to save her life. She looked ridiculous in dresses too, unlike the delicate Emily with her upturned nose and golden freckles.

  “Stop it,” Vanessa said.

  “Stop what?”

  “Judging yourself.”

  “Who says I’m judging myself?” Chas said.