The Crazies↠L. Dunbar

[8]

I am in my mom’s car, dabbing some foundation under my eyes to cover the extreme bags I have acquired before she comes out. I’ve never really bothered with doing makeup, so it’s not exactly going well.

Last night was… something. Not nothing, like Liam is saying. I wish it was nothing. But it wasn’t.

I shudder as an image of sharkboy flashes in my head again.

Not nothing.

Sadly, my horrible experience didn’t end when Liam and I escaped Scott’s house. We tried to sneak into the Geyer/Dunbar house without making a scene, but we totally didn’t consider a lot of major details that would derail that plan immediately.

What was I thinking? My mom is freaked out when I’m not beside her on a school day, I should have expected that she would go completely bonkers at the news that I had gone missing from the hospital.

I had been absolutely smothered with kisses as soon as I entered the living room. Mom coddled me for a good minute and then came the scoldings. I took them, not really listening, as I tried to make a good back up story for what had happened to Liam and I.

At the end of it all I just gave a half-plausible story about how we had run out of the hospital when we heard all of the screaming. Liam kind of jumped in and said he must’ve just rolled or dislocated his ankle because after running for a bit he felt fine again. Mom and Dr. Geyer definitely weren’t buying the story, especially with all of the plot holes, but accepted it for the time being, considering we were both safe and standing on two feet.

Then mom grounded me for three weeks. For… um… running away from a killer? It didn’t matter, I just added it to my tab.

I’m sure that if I tried to do the math I would be grounded for a good sixteen years.

No matter how much I pleaded, mom was firm in her decision to drag me all the way back to Eichen House. I told her it was pointless to when it was already two a.m., earning me another two days’ grounding.

So, to make a long story short, I didn’t get a wink of sleep last night.

The hospital doors finally slide and my mom angrily waltzes out with my backpack, having probably tried to start an argument with the hospital staff about what went down there last night as well. She’s way too overbearing, it wasn’t their fault.

“So,” she huffs, adjusting herself before she starts driving. “I’ll be picking you up at four.”

“What? No, I’m going to Liam’s again. He already said I could--”

“I hardly know this Liam, honey. I just couldn’t bear what happened last night happening again.”

“Nothing happened last night, mom! He got hurt so we went to the hospital and it was just bad timing. Plus, we were completely safe!” I’m lying, but I’m also desperate. “We’re going to be at his house tonight, nothing like that can happen.”

“Absolutely not. You can go back to Nolan’s house once he can take you again but Liam is out of the question.”

“He did nothing wrong--”

“I don’t want to hear it. Anyway, you’re grounded,” she pulls into the school parking lot and gives me a peck on the cheek. “See you at four. Stay safe.”

And with that I’m booted out of the car, the Eichen House sized rock threatening to suffocate me. I watch as she drives away, frozen.

What am I supposed to do now?

A familiar face suddenly flashes into my view, distracting me from my current worries.

I watch as Liam dashes past me and nearly runs straight into a pole. Another kid is there trying to talk to him, but he seems to be out of it. I frown and go to see if he’s alright.

“You ran three miles to school?” the other guy is asking as I approach.

“I-- I just started running,” Liam responds panting. His eyes seem to be scanning everything.

“So I guess that means your foot’s okay,” the other kid remarks. Then he spots the bandage peeking out from under Liam’s sleeve. “What happened to your arm?”

He doesn’t respond, instead looking off somewhere else.

“Liam?” I ask. Other kid and I exchange a glance.

Liam starts panting harder and leans into the fence. Shoot, is he having panic attacks too now?

“Liam?”

“Dude. Are you okay?” We’re both at Liam’s side, concerned.

Liam's gaze settles on something right in front of us. He goes rigid. As soon as I look in the direction he is, I see it too.

Scott.

“I-- I’ll talk to you later. I-- have to get to class,” and suddenly Liam is running away.

I stand there for a moment, shocked. Something is happening to Liam. Is it what Scott was telling us would happen? Or is he being paranoid?

Wait, am I being paranoid?

“That was weird, right?” Other kid asks, his attention directed to me.

He seems familiar. I think he’s in a few of my classes, but I’ve never bothered to pay attention to his name.

Flustered, I nod. “Uh--um, yeah.”

“I’m Mason.”

“Sunny.”

Mason looks to me with recognition, “ohh, you’re the girl who went with Liam to the hospital yesterday!”

I nod again, “yeah, that’s me.”

“Cool,” he says, then checking the place where Liam ran off too. “Do you have any clue why, you know, that just happened?”

I bite my lip, unsure of how much I should tell him. “I don’t know, uh-- there was, uh, like, some sort of killer on the loose in the hospital last night. It was pretty freaky… maybe he’s still worked up from all of it.”

“A killer on the loose,” Mason mumbles. “Why is that not even close to being one of the scariest things that goes on here?”

I sigh and rub my eyes, shaking my head. He definitely has a point.

The bell rings, letting us know that we needed to wrap up our conversation.

“Um, well, I think you’re in my biology and history class,” he points out, shoving his hands into his pockets.

I knew I’d seen him before.

“So I guess I’ll see you then, Sunny.”

He walks away, still looking incredibly confused. I realize I’m shaking and try to collect myself.

Not nothing.

oof wozers its been a hot minute but im baaackkk

the show has some serious continuity issues that i had to fix myself and it gave me a serious writers block but i done fixed it its all okay now.

mason is officially here and im so happy he's like one of my fave characters in the whole show tbh woooo

sunny is thriving as u can see lol poor bby.

anyway, hopefully the next chapter will be up soon yeee