Dead Parade

Love Died With Them

Chapter 3
11:30 A.M.
"We'll be going now, before dark gets to us." Scarlet announced to the group. "You should bring one of the boys with you guys." Ellie suggested. "No we're going to be like Elsa and not need a man." Riley said.
"Or like Merida." said Scarlet.
"Or like Mulan." said Hau'oli.
"Is that supposed to be a joke?" Kimmie darkly said as she sat on an air vent, sending death glares to Hau'oli.
"Heh, aheh. No no." Hau'oli nervously laughed in response.

"We'll be going now." Scarlet assured. Her and Riley climbed off the tree, and quietly made their way around the school.
By the staircase leading to the first floor, they spotted another group in their grade, TNB. Or, at least half of them.
"Hey" Scarlet whispered, trying to catch Ivory's attention.
Ivory and the rest of them were standing by the balconied hallway, just staring out to the area.
"Oh, hey Scarlet." Ivory replied.
"Where's the rest of your group?" Scarlet asked confused.
Ivory turned her head to Scarlet and frowned, "They all scattered. April left with Albert and so did the others with boyfriends, Kiera left with her dad to some safe place or something, and here are some of us. Mela was bitten, Earl decided to tag along, and yeah."
"Sorry about that." Scarlet replied.
"It's okay. We're not losing this war yet." Ivory stated.
"I should get going now, stay safe."
"You too." Ivory replied.
11:57 A.M.
Scarlet made her way down the staircase, stopping behind Riley.
"It's pretty clear. We can walk in with no interruptions." Riley informed. "Hey," Scarlet whispered, "Ivory said something about a safe place. Do you know what it is?" Riley nodded a no, and motioned for Scarlet to follow. They calmly walked into the gymnasium, and as Riley had predicted, with no interruptions.
"My bag's in the locker room." Riley said, as both girls walked into the girl's bathroom. They turned to the locker room door and pulled the handle.
"Locked. I think Ms.Mary has the keys." Riley said. They went back onto the court of the gym. Zambies. Everywhere. The gym was already filled with them. There wasn't a living student to be found. Or at least a human student to be found.
"She's not here. No one is human. Can you try to pick the lock?" Scarlet asked. Riley pondered, stepping back into the restroom and examining the lock. "Yeah," she said, "got a bobby pin?"
Scarlet pulled a bobby pin out of her hair and handed it to Riley. Scarlet positioned a pointed arrow by the doorway, ready to attack if necessary. A few students ran past the gym entrance, startling both girls. But it brought attention to the zambies in the gym, having most of them walk out of the gymnasium.
"I got it!" Riley quietly exclaimed as she opened the door. Scarlet left her post and entered with Riley as they quietly shut the door close.
There were dozens of bags in the locker room.
Riley walked over to her bag and grabbed it.
"I just need to grab my earphones." Scarlet explained, "Maybe there's more stuff here too."
As Scarlet grabbed her earphones, Riley searched through the rest of the bags. Scarlet decided to look through the locker room and lockers.
"Holy sh*t there's so much stuff in these bags!" Riley said with a smile. Both her arms were full of drinks and snacks.
"Is it okay for us to just take all of it? What if others need this stuff too?" Scarlet replied. Riley sighed, "Fine. But I'm only leaving like two or three of a snack and drink, that's it."
"Fine," Scarlet replied, "I found more arrows by the way! Plus two handguns? Now I know who not to trust in school. Oh and two bats I don't know if I can carry them all."
"What if someone else needs them, Scarlet?" Riley mocked.
"Shut up! Stuff the food in your bag and grab a bat and gun." Scarlet directed.
Riley stuffed the food and drinks in her bag and put it on her back. Afterwards, she grabbed a bat and one handgun, hooking the handgun to her backpack. She carried her bat and rifle, while Scarlet held her gun in one hand and the bat in the other, strapping the bow and arrows to her back.
They quietly left the gymnasium once again, making their way around the school. As they stopped by the benches, they came to see that the tree was surrounded by zambies.
Dozens of them.
"I guess we'll find another way up." Riley whispered to Scarlet. They walked around the perimeter of the side of the school, around the roof where their friends were.
Scarlet and Riley stood by a small tree by the left side of the school, next to the gate barrier.
"Wait," Scarlet said, looking up at the building, "there's a ladder up there."
Riley looked up, spotting the ladder. "It starts at the second floor, but I guess we can climb onto the ledge and reach it."
Scarlet and Riley walked back up, and towards the ledge.
"I'll go first," Riley said, "just to test it."
Riley stood on the ledge, and slightly leaned for the ladder. She grabbed onto the side of the ladder, and slowly started stepping towards it. Suddenly her foot slipped, but she kept her balance. Both her hands grabbed onto the ladder, and she was about ready to latch her feet onto the steps. But she slipped, and suddenly Riley was hanging midair from the ladder.
"Oh my god! Riley!" Scarlet quietly exclaimed. Luckily, Riley was able to pull herself back up. She continued to climb up, directing Scarlet to follow. Scarlet safely followed up, and they both got onto the roof. They spotted their group and began to hurriedly run towards them.
"Catch!" Scarlet said to Angelo as she tossed the bat.
"Where'd you get this? And quit making us worry, what took you guys so long?" Angelo asked.
Riley tossed the second handgun to Jayna, and the last bat to Steve.
Scarlet took the last gun and tossed it to Hau'oli.
"Whoah. A gun!" Hau'oli exclaimed as she clutched the weapon.
"Remember, guns are loud but not as loud as the rifle. It might hurt your ears at first but you'll quickly adjust to it. Only shoot if necessary, and we should really start to get going, again." Riley informed.
"Right. We don't want to be here when it's black out." Haru said.
"So? We need an explanation from you two and where we're heading to after we leave the school, pronto." Queen demanded.
"TNB nearly fell apart, no one survived in the gymnasium raid, we spotted some students who were still alive, we got weapons and food & drinks from the locker room, the tree area is surrounded by zambies, and Riley nearly fell to her death after attempting to test out a ladder." Scarlet explained, all in one whole sentence.
"Damn that must've been a struggle. But can we get going now?" Connor complained. The group started to move quickly, as Riley and Scarlet led them to the ladder.
"I'll go first, everyone quickly follow behind, but quietly." Queen directed.
One by one everyone got down, hopping onto the second floor.
The group traveled downstairs and finally, into the parking lot.
A couple of cars were still there, but nearly half of the cars were gone.
The one thing that wasn't gone were zambies.
"Are we fighting our way through?" Ellie asked, with worry filling up her tone of voice.
"How else are we getting to the van? There's not that much of them, I think we can handle them all." Steve whispered.
"Okay," Queen said, turning to the group, "we're fighting through this, but quietly. We can't afford to attract any more zambies."
The group stealthily walked up to the nearest zambies, and quietly killed away.
"The scissors are really quiet, and effective. Don't shoot your guns." Queen reminded the group. Another tenth grade group, TNT, was suddenly nearby, also in the parking lot. Using the same strategy, they were fighting off zambies. They quickly made their way to their car, using two cars for their big crew. As one of the group member's, Daisy's boyfriend Hank, was getting some people in one of the cars, keeping watch by the car door, a zambie suddenly jumped him out of nowhere. It had been hiding behind the car, and bit him on the shoulder. He cried out a scream, and suddenly all the zambies grew their attention to him. Every living person in that parking lot already knew he wasn't going to last.
Daisy suddenly jumped out of the car, and towards him.
"No," she calmly sobbed, "don't go. Keep your sanity, or something!" she pleaded to Hank, who had already been severely bitten.
"Daisy, we have to go!" Tera quietly said to her, about ready to close the car door.
"No! Not without him!" Daisy cried.
"Get out of here Daisy!" Hank demanded.
"No, we can't leave you! I can't leave you!" she replied.
"We can't bring him," Tera sadly said, "we can't cut off his shoulder, we can't save him."
Daisy cried out many tears, taking another glance at Hank.
"If he can't go, I can't go." Daisy stated. "Leave without me, please. Don't even turn back for me, keep that promise."
In an instant, Daisy slammed the car door shut, and entwined hands with Hank. For the last time they hugged and kissed, before a zambie went after her too.

They went down to the ground, but they didn't let go.

12:46 P.M.
"Now's our chance! To the van!" Jayna quietly exclaimed. As silently as they could, the group made their way to Riley's van. They worked pretty fast into getting into the van and securing it.
"There goes the athletes club." Jayna said. "Daisy lost it, lets hope they don't lose it either."
"That was so cute and sad." Hau'oli confessed.
"Hey," Haru said, "there's some breaking news on my phone, about a quarantine area?"
Scarlet turned to look at Haru, who was looking down at his phone.
"I heard about that earlier. Ivory mentioned that Kiera left with her dad to there." she said.

Kimmie sat in the middle row between Ellie and Queen as she set up the car's TV.

"Why do we have to sit in like the trunk area? I know it's not a trunk but yeah why?" Connor complained.
"I kinda like it back here." Jayna laughed.
"Me too. Lets talk secrets!" Hau'oli chuckled.

"Weirdos." Steve said as he sat between Angelo and Haru in the back.

"So where are we exiting?" Scarlet asked Riley as Riley started the car.
Riley looked out her window, looking for an exit.
"We'll exit where TNT exited." Riley said.

"Hey, guys, the TV just said that the quarantine area is full." Kimmie worriedly said.

The news broadcast was on, as the reporter stood in an area surrounded by a titanium-looking barricade.
1:22 P.M.
"Here today I am standing in a titanium quarantine area, down in the town of Dereo. A disease had recently broke out earlier this morning, with no warning given by the government. But, this safe zone had been created ahead of time to keep citizens safe from all the distress. Until further notice of expansion, we have no more space in the area, back to you Flynn." the newscaster informed.

"Thanks Linda. Many neighborhoods are on lockdown at the moment. Trucks will be going down to those neighborhoods from time to time to provide supplies to help last while scientists take care of the disease. A few other neighborhoods have not been locked down, so for survival purposes, no charges will be put for break-ins into any type of store, franchise, or company buildings. Please stay safe and keep in tune from time to time for further details about available space in the quarantine barricade." Flynn, the reporter, stated.

"No more space?" Ellie asked.
"Sh*t. Now we have to literally survive on our own." Queen cussed.
"It's fine guys we got this." Riley said with a thumbs-up.

"Right? Dude we got this!" Jayna agreed.

"Yeah guys, positivity counts." Kimmie added.

"We got this." Scarlet said.

The group was in a great state of trouble at the moment. Deep inside, all of them knew it wouldn't be easy, and that this was just the beginning.