The Intern

Chapter Eighteen: Cell Outs

Mari, Lasercorn, and I sit down to play some zombie game.
"Should we change the language?" Mari asks going into the language settings. I laugh.
"Yeah," Lasercorn responds.
"I should change it to Japanese," Mari says.
"No. Italian," I say. She laughs and clicks on it.
About ten minutes of us saying random things in Italian accents later, we're sitting in Matt Raub's car. I'm sitting in the front seat and Mari and Lasercorn are in the back. We start going, but one of the backdoors is opened. I hear Sohinki saying something as Mari screams. Sohinki's voice comes from the backseat now.
"What happened to Mari?" Lasercorn asks.
"Nothing. Everything is fine," Sohinki laughs.
After a short car ride Matt Raub stops the car. I reach for the door handle and open the door. We all grab each other's arms and walk to where Matt Raub was pulling us.
"Alright, take your blindfolds off," he says. We all take them off.
"Guns!" Lasercorn immediately shouts. I laugh.
"Today you'll be going through a course full of zombies. You'll have one magazine with twenty bullets so use them sparingly. There are red lights throughout the course with extra mags and other things. You'll have one flashlight to start, but there is another one hidden in the course. You're objective is to find these." He holds up a white case. "There are two of them and when you find them both, there are two barrels at the back of the course to put them on. Got it?"
"Yes," we all say. He hands us our airsoft pistols. The crew straps cameras to us and we walk into the course.
"Zombies are you ready?" They groan in response.
"Survivors are you ready?"
"Yeah!"
We walk into the course. Sohinki has the flashlight, so he leads the way. Lasercorn and I walk together.
"There!" I shout pointing to a zombie. Sohinki shoots it and it collapses to the ground.
I shoot a few zombies, but we come to a red light. Lasercorn runs over to it.
"It's a riot shield!" Lasercorn yells excitedly. I laugh. Sohinki and I stand by the entrance watching for zombies. Lasercorn holds the shield up. We walk passed some more buildings finding another flashlight, and a briefcase, then over to a bus.
"Be careful Lasercorn," I say. Lasercorn walks up into the bus.
"There's nothing in here," he says. He starts to walk out, but zombies crawl out from under the bus. I scream.
"Zombies are coming out from under the bus," Sohinki yells shooting at them. I shoot a few as well. Lasercorn stands in the bus until the zombies are dead.
We approach a building with a red light in it. I walk inside with my flashlight on, Lasercorn and Sohinki trail behind me. A zombie jumps out at me. Lasercorn grabs me and throws me behind him. Sohinki shoots the zombie, but not before it gets Lasercorn.
"Ah, take my stuff," Lasercorn hands Sohinki his gun and shield. I grab the extra mag.
"Stay close," Sohinki commands. I nod and walk behind him. We walk over to another building with a red light.
"I so hope this is another case," I say. Sohinki nods. A zombie jumps out and gets Sohinki. "Oh shit!" I shoot the zombie. Sohinki falls to the floor pretending to be dead.
"Raaahhhh." I hear Lasercorn groaning. I laugh a bit.
"Shoot the orange haired zombie in the face," someone calls. I laugh again. I head towards the red light.
"Please be a briefcase. Please," I walk into the building. "Dammit, just another damn mag."
I see Sohinki pretending to be a zombie. I shoot him. He falls to the floor again. More zombies head towards me.
"Shit. Shit. Shit," I shoot as many as I can before Lasercorn grabs me from behind. I scream. He drags me to then floor and zombies pretend to eat me.
"Gotcha," Lasercorn says. The zombies get off of us and stand around.
"You ass," I say punching Lasercorn as he helps me up. He laughs and Sohinki walks over to join us. We walk together out of the course.
"That was so much fun," We all say in unison getting into the car.

Once we get back to the office, Mari, Flitz, Wes, and Joven are playing some game together at the table in the lounge. Sohinki walks to the recording room, probably to play a game by himself. Lasercorn and I walk into the lounge together.
"Hey, guys," I say.
"Hey," they say continuing their game.
"How was the zombie thing?" Mari asks.
"So much fun," Lasercorn says.
"I was the last one alive," I gloat. "Until our orange haired friend here decided to grab me and basically feed me to the zombies." I jab my elbow into his side playfully.
"Ow," he groans, rubbing his side. Everyone laughs.
"Well, I'm gonna get going home," I say walking out of the lounge. Lasercorn follows me to my office. I grab my things and turn around bumping into him. "Whoops."
"Can I get a ride home with you?" He asks. "Sohinki isn't going to leave for another couple hours, but I don't feel like staying here."
"Oh. Yeah, totally," I say. We walk out toward my car.

Lasercorn and I walk into my apartment. I set my things down on the coffee table in the living room.
"I thought giving you a ride home meant you go home," I joke. Lasercorn laughs and sits on the couch. I sit down next to him.
"So, what happened to you going to college?" He asks out of the blue.
"Uh, well, I may have dropped out," I say.
"You what?" He asks. He sounds like a disappointed parent.
"I've been busy with Smosh Games and everything, that I could never make it to classes, so I dropped them."
"Ella, you can't just drop your classes. I thought you wanted to work on films."
"It's not that I don't want to work on movies. I love working at Smosh Games. I don't want to end that," I say.
"You can't-"
"I can. I did," I say getting up.
"What happens if and when Smosh Games isn't a thing anymore?"
"I'm making enough money now to last a long time," I say. "And I don't have to worry about it. Smosh Games is only growing in popularity."
"Alright," he gives up. I sigh.
"It wasn't a rash decision, David. I thought about it and this is what I think is best for me right now," I say. He slinks back into the couch and sighs.
"Do you remember our senior prom?" He asks suddenly.
"What does that have to do with anything?" I ask.
"Just answer the question."
"Yes. I remember it. Why?" I ask.
Thinking back on it, our senior prom was one of the worst nights of my life.
"Ella, Toby is here to pick you up," my mom called up the stairs. I smile to myself, taking the last curler out of my hair. My light purple dress flows behind me as I walk down the stairs. Toby smiles at me.
"You look great," he says. I feel my face heat up.
"Thanks," I say.
"Alright, we need some pictures," my mom says excitedly. Toby and I pose for pictures.
"Alright, mom, that's enough," I laugh. Toby chuckles.
"Yeah, we should get going," Toby says.
We get into Toby's car and head to the small community center that prom is being held in. Toby and I walk in together, our arms linked.
I find a few of my other friends and the girl that was supposed to be David's date.
"Where's Dave?" I ask her.
"He hasn't shown up yet," she says. That was unlike David. He was usually right on time for everything.
"Hey, Ella, let's go dance," Toby suggests. I nod and he grabs my hand. We walk out into the middle of the dance floor. We dance together for awhile, but he seems distracted. He keeps looking anywhere but at me.
"What's wrong?" I ask. He shakes his head and looks down at me.
"It's nothing," he says. I look around to see if David showed up. He's dancing with his date, Catharine. Toby is staring at something, just behind me. I turn around and see the girl that had just recently broken up with him, Bethany Brookes. They were the on again, off again couple. They'd been broken up for a few months before prom so I thought I was in the clear for going with him to prom.
"Are you staring at Beth?" I ask. He shakes his head.
"It's nothing, Ella," he says. A slow song comes on and he spins me. We get closer to Beth and her date.
"Hello, Toby's new bitch," Beth says.
"I'm not his "new bitch"," I say using air quotes. Toby takes his hands off my hips.
"Yeah you are. He's just using you to try to get me to notice him," she says. I shake my head, hoping that it wasn't true. "Isn't that right, Toby?"
"I, uh-," Toby stutters. I take a step away from him.
"You were using me?" I ask. "I can't believe you!"
I start walking off the dance floor. Toby grabs my hand. I shake it off and keep walking. I walk out the door and start walking home. Tears fall down my cheeks.
After a while, my feet start hurting from my high heels. I take them off and carry them.
"You shouldn't walk bare foot," someone says from behind me. I jump and turn around. David is walking behind me.
"What do you want?" I ask, wiping away by tears. "To tell me I told you so?" David warned me when Toby asked me that he was nothing but trouble, but I didn't listen.
"I want to punch Toby in the face, but I went after you instead. Toby's a jerk. I'm not going to tell you I told you so," he says. "You shouldn't be barefoot."
"I don't care," I say. David gets ahead of me and crouches, holding his arms behind him.
"Hop on," he says.
"David, I don't think-" He backs up into my legs and picks me up. I let out a laugh. "David!" He laughs and starts running with me on his back.
"Want was the point of me remembering that?" I ask.
"To make you remember the last time you made a decision that you thought was good, but it turned out to be the worst decision for you at the time... Aaand that I'm always right," he laughs. I smile and shake my head.