Water Bottles and Brains

The NWBBA was a strict, foreboding association that didn't play any games with their athletes. Their coaches weren't any different. Valerie panted as she raced down the court, doing the team's end-of-practice sprints. She wasn't fast by any means, her body was a bit out of shape, her legs barely carried her after all the running they had already done. Coach Blabber was shouting profanities at them left and right. Every little thing he could see wrong, he called out.

But she endured it, for the simple fact that she loved Water Bottle Basketball. The thrill of throwing an empty water bottle across the room, hoping that it doesn't catch a gentle breeze and whip out of her teammate's hands. The excitement of shooting the bottle into a trash can from many feet away, while trying to keep it out of her opponents hands. Coach Blabber couldn't stop her from playing if he tried.

Sprinting to the other end of court, the same size of a regular basketball court, she stopped at the line. Heaving, her chest expanded, trying to draw in all the air that she could. Her body hummed with adrenaline, while her heart pounded wildly in her ears.

The other players, both boys and girls, leaned over with their hands on their knees gasping for air. Briley and Kody brought up the rear, both of them barely making it past the base line before falling to the floor in a heap. It's not like the team needed a lot of running. If they passed well, and moved to the bottle, nobody really had to run at all.

Not that Coach Blabber cared. He wandered towards them. His balding head shone under the gym lights, while his ugly silver and lime green track suit swished. It was the only thing she had ever seen him wear. He was a beefy man, though shorter than she was. He took up the room with his angry, bellowing voice instead of his body. His blue eyes were staring at all of them in disgust. He was a hateful man, and Valerie couldn't understand why he coached if he hated all of them so much.

"That's real good, Briley, Kody. Way to step up for the team. If you wanted to sleep, you could have stayed home," Blabber said in contempt. Briley rolled over onto her back, struggling to breathe. Her chunky face was fire engine red as was the rest of her exposed skin. Briley, though a bit overweight, was quite pretty. She had pale, queen-like, skin, jade green eyes, and long, gorgeous, raven-black hair. Her features were soft and feminine.

But at this moment, she looked like a dying fish. Flopping on the floor, gasping for air, her cheeks going in and out as she sucked in what her body craved. She just stared at Blabber as if she couldn't quite understand what he had said. Kody, on the other hand, had gotten redder with embarrassment. His dark eyes were wide, while his black hair lay scrambled and sweat-soaked on his head. He looked at the rest of team, trying to determine if they were angry with him, instead they gave him sympathetic looks.

Valerie, ignoring Blabber's evil eyes, moved towards the two. "Let's go, guys. No sleeping on the job," she humorously whispered, while grabbing both of their forearms and pulling them to their feet. Both of them were drenched in perspiration, letting it drip down their body as if in the shower. She tried not to grimace, putting hands behind her back to wipe their sweat on the back of her shorts.

"I can't bear to see any of you after that horrible display of hustle. Go home," Blabber said, though it sounded more like a cruel whisper from the devil. He turned and left the gym, slamming the door behind him.

Nobody seemed to care that he had left. They all turned to Valerie. Who turned to look at them. They were all adults, legally. Their rights had been signed over by their parents to the NWBBA. While she enjoyed living in NWBBA headquarters and had immense fun while there, she didn't want to be there right now. She wanted to be playing Water Bottle Basketball.

"Should we go?" Somebody called from the back of the group, he sounded confused. She determined it was probably Luke, the newest member on the team. He was barely seventeen, yet he played as though he had been playing for one hundred years.

"Nah," she said, shaking her head, "Let's get some real practice in." With that said, she grabbed a water bottle from the basket and split their team into two groups to scrimmage.

After their game, they all headed to the locker rooms. The girls headed into the women's, while the boys went into the men's. Not many people used the locker rooms anymore, seeing as they could just walk home and use their own showers. But for some unknown reason, the whole team always used the locker room instead of heading home.

Valerie followed the girls into the locker room, listening as they murmured and talked among themselves. They talked about everything from the guys, who they could hear showering next door, to how they would kill Blabber if it wasn't illegal.

"Can you believe he was going to get married?" Shauna asked, with surprise.

"He was not!" Shouted half the girls in response. Wide-eyed Shauna was nodding with enthusiasm. She enjoyed the attention, the chance to tell the girls something new.

"Yeah huh," she responded, "but the broad came to her senses and left him before he could wrangle her into something she didn't want." Shauna smiled with glee. "To think that anyone would want to live with Blabber is just beyond me."

The girls nodded in agreement, then stripped to jump into the showers. It was only after showering, drying off, and dressing that the girls heard a commotion. They looked at each other curiously before grabbing their stuff and heading into the hallway.

The boys, also fully dressed with their bags, ran around yelling and shouting at each other. The girls, once again, turned questioning eyes at one other. As if one would know more than the other did. Valerie grimaced at them, imagining Blabber coming back to find them running around like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off.

"It's happened! I told you it would happen!" Jeremy shouted, grabbing Luke by his shoulders and shaking him. Luke shook, his eyes wide with fear and confusion. He didn't try to fight Jeremy or get him to let go, instead Luke just stood their as Jeremy panicked.

Kody raced to stand in front of Briley, his eyes wide and terrified. His hands grabbed hers, squeezing hard, and murmured to her quietly. Briley's eyes got bigger and bigger with each word. Through this exchange, Valerie learned two things. One, Kody and Briley were an item. Two, the zombie apocalypse had began.