Rot The Vote

Chapter 4

That lunch, Ariana trudged into the cafeteria. She still replayed the scene over and over with Jake in her mind. She had to admit that some of the stuff she said wasn't very nice. Maybe she should apologize?

But I was right. Zombies aren't people. They're monsters.

She internally groaned at what the lunchlady plopped onto her paper plate. It was the worst lunch the cafeterias could serve. Meatloaf and mashed potatoes.

This day just gets better and better. Ariana thought sarcastically.

Grabbing a carton of milk and a plastic fork, she scanned the lunchroom for a place to sit. There were only two seats open: One at Jake's table or the table next to these weird boys, one of which was sticking carrot sticks up his nose.

Ariana wrinkled her face in disgust and decided she'd rather sit with Jake and his stupid pro zombie friends then carrot stick nose kid. She started walking over Jake's table. Jake scowled at her and took his backpack off the table, putting it on the only available seat left at the table.

"That seat's saved for Brie." He replied snobbishly with a glare.

"But Brie's right next to you." Ariana said, pointing to Brie, who was posting pictures of her food to instagram.

"It's saved." Jake said. Plastering a fake smile on his face, he followed with, "Have a nice day."

Ariana dejectedly walked over to the table next to Carrot stick kid and his friend with skin the color if clam chowder and glazed over eyes. His clothes were covered with blood and he had a huge bite mark on his neck. Just your average dorks.

Wait. Bite mark? Oh no... Ariana thought, I can already tell this is going to be bad.

"So, did you see the new Star Trek episode last night?" Carrot Stick Kid asked.

The zombie just grunted and groaned in response.

You're so stupid! Ariana rolled her eyes, You're so painfully oblivious!

She tried to distract herself from their stupid and boring conversation by focusing on her plate, mainly by stabbing her congealed mass of white lumps that was trying to pass as mashed potatoes and imagining it was Jake.

She heard the sound of a chair and glanced up to see Jake, who just sat in front of her. The tension was so thick, you could cut it with a knife (which was something you couldn't do with the meatloaf).

"I came to tell you that you can't come to my birthday party at Papa Johns." Jake sneered.

"What makes you think I even WANT to come to your stupid party anyway?" Ariana replied, "You're probably going to invite those flesh-eating monster's you're trying to be friends with."

"You're just a hater. You're a jealous hater! You're jealous because I have my mother and mine didn't get eaten by a zombie like yours. Your mother probably deserved it!"

Ariana stood up and slammed her hands down on the table. Her blood was boiling. How DARE he had audacity to make fun of her dead mother! She had enough.

"My mother was a kind woman! My mother at least doesn't sell her body in an alley to support her coke habit like yours does! So you can shut it, something your mother doesn't know how to do with her legs!"

"You're such a bi--" Jake was cut off by a high pitched scream.

"Ew! He bit me!"

Ariana turned around to see a blonde cheerleader holding her badly bleeding arm. Carrot Stick Kid (who finally got the carrot sticks out of his nose) stared at his friend in shock.

"Dude." Carrot Stick Kid said, "We talked about this. Your counselor said not to bite people."
***
The zombie virus spread like... Well, like a virus, and pretty soon, it had infected the entire school.

Ariana trudged into the school, casually avoiding zombies. She didn't care anymore. If she died, she died. What did it matter? If she did die, at least she'd be with her mother again.

"This is not good!" She heard a voice say. She recognised it as the voice of Principal Hammerlick. She carefully peeked around the corner, making sure not to be seen.

Principal Hammerlick was talking to Professor Mendez. He grabbed his arms and shook him a little.

"This isn't good! This is my school!" Principal Hammerlick yelled, "I can't be senator if the school I'm in charge of is turned into flesh eating zombies! Do you know how bad this looks for my reputation?"

Professor Mendez wiggled out of Principal Hammerlick's grip, he shot a look over to his assistant who was single handed trying to keep four zombies away from the principal and the scientist.

"It'll be ok." Professor Mendez replied, looking back at Hammerlick as an expression of skepticism crossed the principal's face, "It'll be ok. We'll come up with a plan."

"We gotta do something about this." Principal Hammerlick said.

A scream of terror erupted from Professor Nemo. The zombies finally overpowered him. Principal Hammerlick and Professor Mendez backed away as the zombies tore into the assistant scientist.

A look of disgust crossed Hammerlick's face.

"That looks painful." Hammerlick muttered. Professor Mendez put his hand over his chest looking solemn.

"He was a good man." Professor Mendez nodded.

Mr. Orangejello stepped out reading an American Studies textbook. He glanced over at the zombie hoard devouring the assistant scientist. Realization overcame him and he did a double take.

Yup. They were eating him.

"Hey!" He shouted. The hoard stumbled toward him in a slow and threatening manner.

Swinging the book hard, Mr. Orangejello started fighting off the zombies, smashing them against the lockers.

"What the hell did you do?" Mr. Orangejello yelled at Principal Hammerlick, "The students are all zombies!" he pointed at Professor Nemo, "That guy was being eaten!"

"Look, it's fine." Principal Hammerlick put a hand on Mr. Orangejello's shoulder, "We've got a plan, right?" He looked over at Professor Mendez.

"It's not fine!" Mr. Orangejello shouted, shrugging the hand off, "You turned the students into ZOMBIES! How is that fine?!"

"Let's go have a private discussion in my office." Principal Hammerlick lead Mr. Orangejello away, "We have a plan."

Ariana looked away, shock etched on her face. Principal Hammerlick was behind all this? But Principal Hammerlick seemed like a nice guy. He seemed like he adored the students. HE caused the zombie outbreak at school?!

Ariana slid against the wall. Her stomach felt upset from all she had witnessed. She needed to lie down.

Wait. The nurses office was right next to Principal Hammerlick's office. Maybe she could eavesdrop and find a way to stop all this.

She smiled to herself and walked down to the nurses office.