The Monster Apocalypse

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SIX

The Film teacher, now certified action hero, kicked open the door to classroom 220, at the end of the English wing of Grisly High, and dragged Brin inside. The room was pretty bare, void of Mr. Barker's books on films and endless supply of DVDs—he had been fired from his job a few days ago, after all—but at least the framed film posters were still all up around the room. The first one Brin saw was the one in the back, the Psycho poster. She immediately thought of Ash, and she turned to him, as both he and Mr. Barker helped Brin up onto the long wooden desk at the front of the classroom.

But as Brin slammed her back against it, her thoughts wandered back to her fired teacher.

"Wait a second," she said. "Mr. Barker, if you were let go, what are you doing back at Grisly High?"

He opened the office door, to reveal a room cluttered with papers and boxes, as well as a strange and soft green glow.

"The truth is," he said, rummaging through a drawer to his right, "I never really left."

"Never really left?" Ash asked, with a chuckle. "You went back 130 years! You went from the beginning of Back to the Future 2 and ended up in Back to the Future 3! How can you say that?"

"Ash, help me," he said. "I need you to hold this."

Brin tried to see what the two men were doing in the adjacent office, but she couldn't crane her head far enough to the left. Dylan held down her left arm and Anaya held down her right.

"I feel like you guys are trying to force a demon out of me," Brin said.

"Well, in all honesty, Brin," Anaya said, "we kind of are."

"This isn't The Exorcist. I'm not Linda Blair. I'll be fine—"

"A zombie bit you. There's not a moment to lose."

"But it was my dad. Doesn't that account for anything? Maybe I won't change at all—"

"That was your dad down there?" Dylan asked, making a face that suggested he wanted to wretch all over the floor. "That's disgusting."

"Disgusting? Try downright wrong," Anaya said. "For all the zombies to corner you in a dark hallway. My God, Brin—"

"What happened to you guys?" Brin asked, wanting to change the subject. "When we split up, I mean. Did you find shelter? Did Mr. Barker save you?"

"Kind of, yeah," Anaya said. "Actually it was really weird. I hid in one of the science classrooms, and I tried to hide under a bed on the second story. A zombie found me and tried to attack me, but as soon as I thought it was over, Ash and Mr. Barker broke into the classroom and shot the zombie dead. It fell back and knocked this skeleton down against a bunch of desks. They saved me. In the nick of time."

"Same thing happened to me," Dylan said. "I went down to the journalism room, but it didn't do much good. I watched Britney and Danielle get torn to shreds, but Mr. Barker and Ash shot the three zombies at the door, just in time, to save me, and the sports editor Brent, the dreamy sports editor Brent." Ash stopped his rambling, and sighed, happily.

"Really?" Brin asked.

Dylan shrugged. "What?"

She looked past Dylan and finally caught a glimpse of Ash and Mr. Barker. They stood on the opposite side of the office, Ash holding a tall cabinet still as Mr. Barker stirred a spoon around some kind of white liquid.

"I'm sorry, Brin," Dylan said, "but I won't let the zombie apocalypse keep me from day-dreaming about hot guys!"

"Dylan, shut up," Anaya said, stepping a foot closer to Brin's side. She clamped her hands against Brin's and leaned down toward her. "But the weird thing is, Mr. Barker and Ash saved me, saved Dylan, saved you, and that boy you were with. It's like they knew where we all were, like they had psychic powers, or had gone back in time a few minutes, enough time to figure out where we all were and save our lives."