ADRIAN’S UNDEAD DIARY
Chris Philbrook
Book Two
ALONE NO MORE
Adrian’s Undead Diary: Alone No More
Copyright © 2010 Christopher Philbrook
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission of the author. Your support of author’s rights is appreciated.
Published in the United States of America
First Publishing Date December, 2010
All characters in this compilation are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Cover design and interior layout by Alan MacRaffen
For my friends, who are too numerous to list here,
and far too important to me to forget.
Also, a massive debt of gratitude goes out to the AUD community as a whole,
without whom there would be no books to read.
-Chris
Also by Chris Philbrook:
Elmoryn - The Kinless Trilogy
Book One: Wrath of the Orphans
Coming Soon:
Book Two: The Motive for Massacre
Book Three
Adrian’s Undead Diary
Book One: Dark Recollections
Book Two: Alone No More
Coming Soon:
Book Three: Midnight
Book Four: The Failed Coward
Book Five
Book Six
Book Seven
Book Eight
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Auburn Lake Preparatory Academy map
One Mistake: The Last Stand of Hall B
DECEMBER 2010, Continued
December 3rd
Putting a Name to a Face
December 4th
December 5th
December 6th
December 7th
December 8th
December 10th
Exodus
December 12th
Jerusalem
December 13th
December 15th
December 17th
December 18th
The Chief
December 20th
December 22nd
December 24th
December 25th
December 27th
Special Preview: The Wrath of the Orphans
About the Author
Additional Online Content
AUD Merchandise
One Mistake:
The Last Stand of Hall B
“I’m telling you Deb, he just wants to fuck you.” The 17 year old brunette said to her bunkmate a couple feet above her. Their bedroom was dark, but their conversation animated.
“Kim, I know he’s a retard. That’s fine, I just want to fuck him too. I can’t stand him, but he’s pretty fucking hot.” Deb said as she stared intensely at the posters of athletic men stuck to the ceiling just above her top bunk. “Plus it’s not like he’s smart enough to have his feelings hurt after we hook up.”
“Ha. Slut.” Kim snickered.
“You girls talking about me again?” A man’s whisper came from the door that was just ajar at the head of their bunk. Both girls nearly leapt out of their beds, shame, shock, and a stifled laugh all readily apparent on their bright red faces. Standing with his grinning face just inside the dorm room was Adrian, one of the school staff at the prep academy the two girls attended.
“Mr. Ring, you shouldn’t sneak up on us like that.” Kim said in a scolding fashion at the staff member. She kind of liked him, he was tall, dark, mysterious, pretty funny, and you could always see a little peek here and there of some tattoos. She might stray from her normal bounds for him some night, if she thought he’d go for it.
Deb in the bunk above her added to the diatribe, “Yeah Mr. Ring. Seriously, it’s late, and this is clearly girls only time.” The thin blonde twirled her hair in a largely adolescent attempt to look sexy.
Adrian laughed in a hushed tone, careful not to wake up the girls sleeping in the other bunks in the room, and said back, “First, it’s Adrian, not Mr. Ring, Deb. I’m not your teacher. And secondly girls, if it’s this late, and its girls only time, I shouldn’t be able to hear about your attempted sexual conquests in the kitchen downstairs, right? Volume ladies. It's a school night.”
That hushed both of the girls. With no witty comeback coming to their minds both girls let out simultaneous sighs, and laid back down in their beds. They were defeated by logic.
“FYI Deb, he’s dirty. You might catch something. Date one of the nerds. They’ll get more handsome soon enough, they’re probably clean, and they’ll also appreciate you a lot more.” Adrian said with a smile and a wink, and pulled the door shut.
Both girls sighed again, sick of the same old lecture. After a minute of silence, they both let out muffled giggles. Kim reached over and grabbed the remote to small TV on the bureau next to their bed and thumbed through the channels. Every channel was filled with the same old shit she thought. It was always shitty reality TV, infomercials about getting rich quick, and 24 hour news channels at this hour. She lingered on a news report of multiple homicides reported all over the world in what looked to be another coordinated terrorism attack, but decided it was the same shit as it was always ways, and hit the power button. The TV blinked off with a static snap of protest, and went black.
“Goodnight whore,” Kim said as she rolled over onto her stomach.
Deb replied in a half asleep mumble, “Goodnight skank.”
*****
The two girls woke up at 7am just like they always did for school days. It was a Wednesday, and just like every other Wednesday at the school they had classes first thing in the morning. Tough classes. Classes like AP Calculus, AP History, AP Chemistry, and AP Physics. The school they attended was an exceedingly expensive private preparatory high school, and only the best and brightest were allowed to attend. Although in Deb’s case, having a lot of money could get you around the best and brightest part.
Both girls spent their early morning putting themselves together. They woke up a little earlier than the rest of the girls to ensure they’d have plenty of hot water, and had plenty of mirror time in the bathroom. Both girls were interested in several different guys on campus, and didn’t want to miss a day of looking good when they were on the prowl. God forbid a guy passed on them because one of them didn’t straighten their hair that day.
Once Kim and Deb got their appearances perfect, they headed downstairs and sat at the dining room table. Adrian sat at the table in front of his laptop, brow furrowed in an amused, but also vaguely concerned expression.
“Something funny Adrian?” Kim asked him.
“Well Kim,” he scrolled his mouse wheel, “weird news reports online all night. Lots of random attacks all over the world. Some places are saying the attacks are being perpetrated by zoooooommbieessss.” He drew the last word out and made a blank drooling stare. It was a very good zombie face. He shrugged, and closed the laptop, gathering his stuff to head out.
“Yeah sure. Probably another stunt for some TV show,” Deb said as she peeled an orange, her normal morning breakfast.
“Something like that.” Adrian tucked his computer away in its case, dumped out his cup of coffee in the sink, and double checked he hadn’t left anything. “Remember girls,” he looked at the two of them, panning a dead serious expression. ”Shoot them in the head. It’s the only way to kill them.” He held his expression for a second then slowly busted out into a sly grin.
The two girls mocked him for being a mega nerd as he made his way out the back kitchen door, waving
as he clicked it shut behind him.
“I like him.” Kim said to Deb.
Deb delicately chewed her orange slice, and replied after she swallowed the pulp, “He’s cool. I heard his girlfriend is cool too. She came to pick him up a week ago when his car was getting fixed or something.”
“Girlfriend huh?” Kim’s mind started racing at the thrill of the hunt. Maybe she’d try to press the issue with Mr. Ring some night. Kim started peeling her own orange, starting her devious plan for seduction.
“Slut.” Deb said.
“Yep.” Kim replied as she starting eating her orange.
Turns out it never mattered, they never saw him again.
*****
The two oversexed teenage vixens (or so they thought themselves to be) made their way to the campus cafeteria to socialize before they had to go to class. Neither of them ate at the cafeteria of course. They simply moved table to table, making their rounds to all the boys they wanted to give a little attention to. Just like any school, it was a popularity contest at Auburn Lake Prep. Almost everyone was smart there, and there were a lot of good looking kids as well, so it came down to money, or popularity. The two girls made sure they laid some seeds with several boys before the bell rang and everyone was summoned off to their first classes.
Kim and Deb both had AP Calc as their morning class. Mr. Dalembert taught it, and if you could find a nerdier, drier person, you should be searching for Bin Laden Kim felt. Both girls would rather sit at home with their parents, getting lectured about curfew times than sit through one more of his classes, but such was life. They shuffled themselves into their desks, fetched their scientific calculators and their books from their bags, and settled in for the long haul. Two hours of pure, mathematical agony.
The class went exactly as both of them had expected. Well, not entirely as expected. Mr. Dalembert had a strict no cell phone policy in his class. He fully expected everyone in the class to focus themselves entirely to the shrine of trigonometry, geometry, algebra and calculus when he was on his pulpit. No exceptions were allowed. In fact his rule carried a stiff penalty. Every time a student was caught with their cell phone out in class, their semester grade went down one full point. It didn’t take many grade deductions to show up on their reports for the kids to find out mommy and daddy were pissed. It was an effective system.
That’s why there was a stunned silence when Mr. Dalembert called out to Pete at the back of the room towards the end of class, “Peter, is that a phone in your hand?” Mr. Dalembert’s long, hawkish face was even more avian as his eyebrows cocked up in his overdone look of shock.
Peter, or Pete as he preferred, was the resident math genius. His eyeglasses were a little too thick, the frames a little too large, and his jet black hair was always mussy, and not in the trendy emo way. Pete was awkward, too skinny, and was for sure a social outcast from girls like Kim and Deb. In fact, both girls had bet last year that he was still a virgin, despite being a senior.
“Mr. Dalembert, I’m sorry sir. I just... It’s just…” He replied without looking up an inch from his phone. It was a very expensive phone. Internet, email, super high def camera, you name it, it did it. At least Pete couldn’t be picked on for having second rate gadgets.
“Peter it’s just that you lost a point off your grade. I expected better of you, really.” Mr. Dalembert took out his dreaded red pen and marked down a check in his grade book. Everyone knew it was next to Peter’s name.
“I think you should turn on the TV Mr. Dalembert. Something serious is happening.” Pete finally looked up, his young, awkward expression showing a little confusion, and a little fear. Everyone else in the classroom was looking back and forth between the student and teacher, waiting to see how the weird power struggle played out. Something in Pete’s face must’ve been sincere though, because after a few seconds of looking at him, Mr. Dalembert went over to the TV that hung suspended in the corner of the classroom, and he turned it on with the remote.
Kim and Deb exchanged slightly excited glances at one another. When the television went on, it meant study stopped abruptly, and that meant a break from the droning of numbers and formulas.
“Go to one of the news networks,” Pete finally sat his phone down on the desk and started walking slowly to the front of the classroom. He looked almost afraid of what the TV might show. Kids from the back of the classroom started to get up, joining Pete slowly in the front, trying to get a good look at whatever it was that had him spooked.
The teacher flipped through a few dozen stations before arriving at one of the more reputable news networks. They were on commercial though, and Mr. Dalembert gave a disappointed look at Pete. “Peter if whatever it is that’s got you worried were serious, they would not go to commercial. This had better be good mister.” He returned his gaze to the television after his dressing down of the kid.
“It will be. Well, I don’t think it’ll be good, but I think it’s legitimate.” Pete never took his eyes off the screen.
After a few minutes of incessant commercial rambling about various medications that apparently everyone should know they needed, the female anchor finally appeared again, and Pete leaned in to hear. She talked for several second with the caption Worldwide Murders over her shoulder, and a picture of police lights flashing. The volume was too low though, and a chorus of “turn it up” sprouted. Mr. Dalembert obliged them after fumbling with the remote for a second. Eventually the anchor’s voice carried over the growing din in the classroom, and everyone fell silent to listen. The television had won.
“Reports are mixed, and we are trying to verify them at this hour, but what we can tell you is that multiple of our bureaus are saying that there has been a seemingly random, dramatic spike in personal attacks all across the world. We are hearing that the majority of these attacks appear to be assaults committed by either a drugged, or ill group of citizens. They are characterized by muted flesh tones, a general appearance of disorientation, and an immediate need to attack others, including animals. Now we aren’t sure exactly what of those reports is fully true or not, but that’s what’s coming in from over 20 of our bureaus across the world, including here in the United States.” As she talked the image over her shoulder changed to a collage of photographs. Each picture was a snapshot of people wandering, covered in blood, wounded, injured, and scared. The pictures were of white people, black people, Asian people, all people. Some of the pictures even showed the purported attackers. They were blank faced, covered in dried blood, walking as if on autopilot. In almost every shot they were moving directly towards the person taking the shot. Many of these attackers snapped their jaws closed repeatedly, as if they were trying to take bites out of their intended victims long before they reached them. It made for a very unsettling collection of images.
Pete swallowed hard, and looked around the classroom before opening his mouth, “those are zombies.”
The entirety of the classroom erupted in nervous laughter at him, and his ridiculous statement. Mr. Dalembert turned the volume on the television down as the class slowly winded down its response to Pete. The teacher just shook his head, finally clicking the television off.
“Everyone back to their seats please.” Mr. Dalembert put the remote away in his desk and continued to laugh under his breath, still shaking his head in amusement. The class made their way slowly back to their chairs as they all took turns making fun of poor Pete. All of the mockery, all the ridicule was lost on him though. He pleaded the seriousness of the matter to everyone, even the people who were making fun of him to his face. Deb and Kim were about to stand up and take Pete’s side, if only to prevent him from becoming a homicidal classmate later when Mr. Dalembert broke in.
“Enough.” His tone said everything that needed to be said. The class fell silent as he slowly raised the dreaded red pen again. He waited a full ten seconds before he put the cap back on it, and sat it down on his desk. “Peter, thank you for bringing this odd situation to our attention. However, we sti
ll have an hour of calculus left this morning, and there have been no reports of anything strange happening near here that I am aware of. Thus, our calculations go on.” He snickered at his own bad joke as he turned to the marker board behind him.
“Mr. Dalembert, if we wait an hour, it might be too late for us.” Pete said in a deadpan voice from his seat at the back of the classroom. Kim and Deb both looked at him at the same time. He looked serious, and scared. Really scared.
That scared the girls very much.
*****
It wasn’t until the girl’s second period class that they started to notice that something was very, very wrong on campus. The school sounded a special alarm that only happened once in a blue moon. All the classroom doors were shut, and all the windows closed. Curtains were drawn down to obstruct the view into, and out of each room, and the teachers all changed their demeanors. They seemed more nervous, more withdrawn and cautious. They kept teaching, but many of them did so keeping their classroom doors in front of them. The school called it a “code blue” situation. The kids called it “lockdown.” It had happened just once earlier around Christmas time when a student brought a handgun onto campus.
During the rest of second period there were more short alarms sounded. Most of them neither girl knew anything about. From where they were sitting, they could see people running around outside. Some were arguing, some getting aggressive, many yelling and screaming. Over what, they didn’t know. Deb and Kim could almost feel the sanity slowly slipping away from the world as things progressively got weirder. When the period bell rang, they were escorted by staff to their next classrooms.
It was 3rd period, sometime around 1:30 in the afternoon when they started to see the cars come for kids. At first it was just one or two, but within half an hour, there was no place to park on campus.
Alone No More Page 1
