The Changed Ones

Fourteen

The group finally left the Disney store. Jackie took one last look at it before heading down the street and turning the corner.

"You sure you're okay?" Lily asked her.
"Yes! Stop asking me, please!" Jackie responded.

Mark looked at Lily and shook his head, telling her to leave her alone.

The group came across a restaurant with a fifties type theme. Jackie's eyes widened.

"Oh great! More memories!" Jackie sassed.
"What do you mean?" Dayna asked.
"Every time I came into New York City, I always ate here for lunch!" Jackie explained.
"What is this place?" Lyndze asked.
"It's called the Stardust diner." Mark explained. "Basically this is where 'Broadway Stars' who aren't working on Broadway would work! They would sing to different songs while serving people."
"This place looks cool!" Malakai said.
"You should've been here before this crap happened!" Lily claimed.

The group went inside. They were surprised finding the place exactly as it was before, with the exception of the lights not working.

"Okay... You guys know the drill..." Lucy explained. "Whoever can cook, come and make some food!"

Mark, Lucy, Lily, Dayna and Felix went into the kitchen area. But then a moment later, Marzia went over to Jackie.

"Want me to make something for you?" Marzia asked. "Because I know Sean used to make things for you."
"You don't have to do that if you don't want to..." Jackie answered.
"I wanna..." Marzia said.
"Thanks..." Jackie smirked.

Marzia went into the kitchen to cook something for Jackie and herself.

Lyndze got out of her seat and went over to Jackie.

"I-I'm sorry about what happened with Sean." Lyndze began. "You must've loved him."
"More than anything." Jackie mumbled.
"How long were you two together?" She asked.
"A year and a half..." Jackie answered.
"Wow... That's a pretty long time." Lyndze commented.
"It was too fast in my opinion..." Jackie said.
"Well, my sister told me that whenever a tragedy happens in a family, to think about happy times that you had with them, and just think positive from that." Lyndze explained.
"There were lots of happy things that happened." Jackie explained. "We never argued once!"
"I guess that's good for you!" Lyndze said.

Suddenly, their conversation was interrupted.

"Lyndze! Stop bothering her!" Dayna yelled.
"No, it's fine!" Jackie claimed. "She's making me feel a little better..."
"Are you sure?" Dayna asked.
"Yeah!" Jackie nodded.

Dayna stood there another moment and then walked back into the kitchen.

"Thanks!" Lyndze smiled.
"You're welcome." Jackie said.
"Ever since this whole thing began she's been very overprotective of me, and our relationship hasn't been the same." Lyndze explained. "She's just been bossy."
"Well, she's trying to protect you." Jackie said. "You're probably the only thing she has right now to keep you company."
"That's true..." Lyndze agreed.

Just then, everybody who cooked in the kitchen came out with food. Marzia set down a plate of pasta for Jackie. It looked just like the pasta she would usually eat here. It even tasted the same way!

"How'd you do this?" I asked.
"The recipes for the foods were hidden in the cabinet!" Marzia answered. "So I followed the instructions and made you some pasta!"

Jackie and the rest of the group continued eating their food.

"This is the benefit of being abandoned in the city." Mark spoke. "No matter what restaurant you go to, there will always be food."
"Well, until it goes bad!" Lucy butted in.
"And hopefully we'll be out of here soon so we don't have to worry about any of that!" Mark explained.

The group continued eating in silence until Jackie spoke up again.

"I just wish we had the music like when the waiters sang when we were eating." Jackie said.

Just then, Mark immediately got up and stood on another table.

"Any requests?" Mark asked.
"Empty Chairs and Empty Tables!" Lily joked.
"No!" Mark immediately denied.
"Do somewhere over the rainbow!" Lyndze called out.
"Why that song?" Dayna asked.
"It's the only song I could think of!" Lyndze claimed.

The group then quieted down as suddenly, Mark began singing the song. The entire group was listening in awe as he was singing.

Just then, Felix stood up and stood up next to him, singing jokingly with him. Eventually Lily joined in, then Marzia, and eventually Jackie. The other group was laughing and enjoying their performance and they were smiling for the first time in a long time.

Suddenly, right in the middle of their little celebration, there was a loud explosion which made everybody standing up fall over and which made everybody else duck for cover.

Because the explosion came from the kitchen.

Moments later, everybody sat up, coughing and moaning in pain.

"Is everybody okay?" Lucy asked.
"I-I think so..." Mark answered.

Marzia sat up along with Felix. She noticed his head bleeding after he hit it against another table.

"Is there any bandages we could use?" Marzia asked, covering his head.
"Yeah I've got some!" Sae responded, digging through her bag and getting a bandage.

Just as they were patching up his wound, Lucy's eyes widened as they saw a large group of zombies headed towards the door of the diner.

"Guys! They're outside! They must've heard the explosion!" Lucy yelled.
"Is there another way out?" Jackie asked.

Mark, Lily and Lucy's group quickly went around, trying to find some kind of emergency exit either on the first or second floor. There was nothing, but when looking through the fire, they discovered an exit.

"We have to go through the kitchen!" Dayna pointed out.
"Then we need to extinguish the blaze, quick!" Lucy exclaimed.

They all quickly grabbed as many extinguishers as they could find, at least two or three, and they put out as much as they could to make it safe for the group to go through. Eventually, they got everybody out safely and out of the sight of the zombies.

"That was close." Lucy said, breathing a sigh of relief.
"What caused the explosion?" Lily asked.
"Somebody must've kept something on." Lucy said. "It doesn't matter, we're all out and safe, now let's get out of here!"

The group went as far away as they could from the diner to assure they were definitely cleared of any zombies.