Takes place right after Night of the Living Pharmacists.
"I still don't understand how we got here." And was it morning? Hadn't the sun set just a few hours ago? And why were they soaked? Had it rained? Linda frowned as she looked around the crowd gathered in Danville's streets. They all looked as wet and confused as she felt.
"It's just one of those things, darling."
Her head snapped around to her husband. "One of what things?"
The tone flew over his head. "Oh, I don't know. It's not that much stranger than when Main Street was flooded by juice."
When had Main Street been flooded by juice? Where had she been to miss that? Forget it. "Do you think the boys are out here?"
"Well, yes, I do believe they are," Lawrence mused.
"Really? Why's that?"
"Because I can see them climbing down the Danville Water Tower."
There was a pause as that sentence sunk in before Linda's eyes went wide. "They're what?!"
"Mom!" Phineas' grin spread across his face as he shot through the crowd, one hand wrapped around Ferb's wrist as he pulled him along. He didn't slow, only letting go a second before he threw himself at her. It was enough to knock Linda back a step, but she quickly crouched down to return the hug.
"You're okay." He buried his face against her, hands fisting in the front of her shirt, he like thought she might disappear he didn't hold on tight enough. "You're okay."
She bushed her fingers through his hair. "Of course I am, why wouldn't I be?" Her plan to demand why Ferb and he had been up the water tower first had flow from her mind at his distress. She raised her head to find Lawrence was staring back at her, eyes shining with concern as he held a, probably, equally as upset Ferb. Sliding her hand down, she cupped his face, forcing him to look at her. "Honey, what happened?"
"Sorry." His smile had gone shaky and his eyes were shiny. "I think... I think the adrenaline's running off."
Adrenaline?
"We, um, there were these zombies." Phineas shook his head. "I mean, not eat-your-brain-zombies, they were pharmacist zombies, and they, uh..."
"Filled prescriptions?"
He let out a startled laugh at her interruption. "No, that would've been--No, they touched people and turned them into repulsive pharmacist zombies too."
So they were repulsive too now? She was aware that her concern had turned to indulgence, Phineas seemed to have noticed too as he pulled back some. A hand kept hold of her shirt, though.
"I'm not explaining this well." He glanced back at Ferb, and got a thumbs up of encouragement that had Phineas taking a deep breath before turning back to her. "Okay, so it all started with Vanessa's dad..."
The story was completely outrageous, even after Candace, Vanessa, and Vanessa's dad (who looked... familiar in a vague way that was more than 'we run into each other once in a store' way but less than 'we were knew each other for a while and drifted apart' way) arrived and backed it up.
She didn't know how her boys had gotten them all in on it, but she apologized to the (Doofenmerts? Doofenplatz?) for it.
Vanessa' father seemed particularly annoyed with her disbelief.
Before it could escalate, Candace tugged on her arm, looking oddly young in the moment. "Mom, can we go home?"
Linda blinked at her before glancing at the others, taking in their expressions: Vanessa's father's anger, Vanessa's clenched jaw, Lawrence's thoughtful but neutral expression, Phineas' hurt one (she hadn't even noticed that he'd finally let go of her to go cling to Ferb and Lawrence instead at some point during the argument), Ferb's careful blankness, and Candace's resigned exhaustion.
"Yes, I think we can go home."
Switching on the TV to find breaking headlines, featuring video footage of masses of (oh, apparently his name was Doofenshmirtz, like the mayor and her friend Charlene from cooking class) Doofenshmirtz clones running through the street, transforming anyone they touched, had Linda feeling a more than a little lightheaded.
When they switched to live footage of what was going on outside the walled city, she felt more than a little faint.
At least she was already sitting down.
