The Zombie Zone

Susan migrated from the cafe to the medical center. She made a pitstop at the table with the two kids, who played on tablets next to their mother.

"You guys holding up?" Susan checked in.

"Yes, thank you," the mother gently nodded. She seemed exhausted from current events. The kids confirmed absent-mindedly, locked in on their games of subway surfing and balloon popping. It was better this way -- away from the horrors. The mother asked, "What did those other students say? How is it out there?"

"We're going to be here a while," Susan kept it straight. "But, their arrival and everybody else's tells me that we can survive this. The national guard will reach us soon enough. Plus, there's plenty of thoughts and prayers coming in from around the world."

"That's true," the mother shifted in her seat. She was uncomfortable, but staying hopeful helped. Susan decided it best to adopt Hank and Lucija's mentalities.

Fate shunned the idea, though. Ashem, Neptune, and Samantha waltzed out of the restrooms. Suspicious eyes followed them, but the three ignored everyone and reclaimed their table in the cafe.

Susan noticed Ashem's mouth was no longer covered in blood. It didn't even have a bruise or mark from where Theo slugged him. His eyes darted about, like a rat's. Neptune and Samantha turned on their chatterboxes. They beamed with rejuvenated energy.

"Odd..." Susan said under her breath. She searched for Tony. He talked with Ant in the gaming corner. The conversation seemed intense based on the wild man's exaggerated expressions. Like Lucija mentioned, Theo wasn't there anymore.

She decided to leave the matter with Ashem to the officers. She moved on to the medical center. Santiago stood like a sentinel on the outside.

"Hey, Susie," Lorenzo called after Susan passed his table. She abruptly stopped, tempted to bark at the moron. However, she politely turned to face him. He lounged in his chair, but now he held Snowdrop in a concerned embrace. Chills and a pale complexion left the girl in a bad state. It sickened Susan seeing her cling to him, knowing what she knew. Lorenzo asked, "Are you heading to see Theodore?"

"I am, and please, call me Susan," Susan showed restraint.

"Oh, sorry about that," Lorenzo recognized the annoyance. "Susan, while you're there, can you ask the doc if Snowdrop can have something for a headache?"

"Suuure, but why can't Snowdrop do it herself?"

"I'd rather her not move or talk too much. It's really killing her," Lorenzo answered, even though Susan directed it to Snowdrop. The sickly woman only raised her head a little and nodded.

"Poor choice of words, dude. Besides, it looks like there's more to it than a headache," Susan's suspicions turned to the apocalypse.

"It's likely my period coming up...I just need something to hold me over," Snowdrop assured.

Susan cursed Snowdrop's compliance, because it meant she couldn't press her away from Lorenzo. Susan forced a smile, "You got it, Snowdrop."

"Thanks, Susan," Lorenzo nodded. She only gave him a fake smile, and then left.

Susan wanted to take the Lorenzo-Snowdrop discovery to Tony and Laylie next. They would know what best to do with the couple.

Susan reached Santiago, "Hey, dude, mind if I slip in and say howdy to my friend?"

Santiago gave a terse response, "Not now."

His detachment unsettled Susan. It only worried her, "Why not?"

"Mommy doesn't want anybody disturbing her work," Santiago didn't even blink.

Susan did her best to ignore the awkward term of endearment, "Oookay, then when can I go in?"

Santiago started shaking. His eyes watered up and face reddened under strenuous pressure. He looked like somebody trying to hold in a breath and say something at the same time. Susan cautiously stepped back, and that's when Santiago squeaked out, "...help...me..."

The guy started to convulse, whimper, and groan. It made Susan's skin crawl. She called out to the game corner, "Tony!"

Inside the medical center, Maria's pillowy thighs rested atop Theodore. He couldn't quite make out anything, and the whole world was a blur. Yet, he could clearly feel and hear the bodacious doctor, "What part of me is your favorite?"

"Your thighs," Theo could barely contain his desires. It wasn't even true, but in that moment it was.

Maria hummed with laughter. Theo's wish was granted. She settled his throbbing cock in the vice of her soft hams. The clamp hugged him tight. She grinded her legs up and down his length for smooth thighjob.

The experience forced a heavy moan out of Theo. Maria covered him with her large breasts, and suffocated his noise, "Shh, darling. We don't want anybody ruining this for us."

Her thighs made his already sensitive head ooze precum. It helped that the warm, moist pussy of the milf rubbed up and down the hard shaft. She bounced and flopped on him. The heft of the woman smooshed against his young, athletic body. Her hair tumbled down like a curtain over all of them. They became a mess of flesh, sweat, and discharged juices.

Maria propped herself on her arms. Her udders hung precariously within sucking distance from Theo. Her majesty outmatched every woman Theo knew. She stopped humping, and the momentary reprieve allowed him to feel her wet mound pulse. It felt like small tendrils were trying to bring him in.

"How about we slide these panties aside and I fuck that delicious cock of yours?" Maria leaned into it. She tugged her panties aside. The raunchy touch of a mother's aged pussy situated right at his tip. He was a single thrust away from utopia.

"Let me in. Please," Theo begged without even thinking. Nothing else mattered. He wanted to fuck the woman crazy.

"Only if you promise to impregnate me with your seed. I need you to fill me up," Maria nudged enough so only the cock head pierced.

Her eyes swirled like a Merry-Go-Round. Theo didn't care what it took. He clasped her huge ass cheeks, and then brought the thick mama all the way down, balls deep. Her pussy suctioned right to his mass and Theo let out another guttural moan. All logic and reason were pushed out by pleasure and pussy.

It was time to knock Maria up.

Theo rattled Maria with powerful, quick upward thrusts. Every inch came out before being drilled right back in. His aching balls bounced haphazardly about. He intentionally swung them with enough force to pat her cheeks.

Maria's tongue hung out and her eyes rolled up. Theo depth and speed sent her body rocking. Her fat tits brushed across his face, and he happily positioned it between them so they blocked all vision. The sweat within the valley smelled sublime. It infected his mind to enter the deep recesses of depravity. He retracted and latched onto a nipple. This caused Maria to cry out in surprise.

"Oh, Theodore! Is my baby boy thirsty? Do you want mommy to feed you?" Maria held the udder Theo suckled. She rubbed it, lactated, and he drank. The ambrosia emptied his mind. Her insides gyrated along with his feverish pounds, like her pussy simulated a car wash.

"You're mine from now on, Theodore," Maria's eyes hypnotized him further into obscurity. The colors of the clinic melded and sloshed. His manhood melded with her womanhood in a grand libation. He wanted his offering to spill out. Maria's voice branched throughout his warped mind, "You will spend every day dumping into me. You will keep me pregnant. You will make me grow."

"Grow," Theo practically echoed, brainwashed. He never wanted to stop. This is what his life would amount to. It was worthless anyway. He wasn't going to succeed in a career or get a girlfriend. It was better to give all of himself to Maria.

"Inject your seed," Maria pinned Theo's arms up above his head. Her eyes grew larger and spun with otherworldly speed. A third, unseen hand choked Theo.

"Inject your seed," there was no escape. Theo only knew pure, silky ecstacy. He couldn't pull out even if he wanted to.

"Inject your seed," Theo saw his future wife's true form. The rotating colors of the world spun behind her. Her hair flayed out and merged with the world, and formed alien-like petals of a flower. Her face and head were no longer human, but instead the writhing swirl of the hypnotic spiral. She seized total control. Body, mind, and seed was all M...

"Theodore!" Hanover's voice, and a gunshot, broke reality.

The creature Hanover shot let out an agonizing rumble. Its green mass laid entirely on Theo. It resembled some sort of bulbous plant. Vine-like appendages secreted a slime that dripped everywhere. Centipede legs clamped to the edges of the bed for stability. Near the tail of the vine monster was a series of thin roots that encircled Theo's genitalia. Half of his erection was plunged into a gooey orifice, as the roots feverishly masturbated him. The upper portion of the monster was thicker and more rounded like a tree trunk. Its body undulated and pulsed, and its 'head' engulfed Theo's face.

Hanover had awoken to the absolute terror molesting Theo. She fell out of bed, fought to crawl over, grab his 9mm, and fire it into the monstrosity.

Upon being shot, the upper body lurched up. Its head couldn't pull away from Theo quickly due to its face being a mass of viney tendrils. These tendrils attached to Theo like leeches. The smaller ones were inside the creases of his eyes, nostrils, ears, and mouth. The slivering tendrils yanked away and unplugged out of Theo's orifices. Slime and blood deluged out of him, and he started to hack up green gunk. His body slumped over the edge of the bed, completely spent from the abuse.

"Theodore!" Hanover cried.

The top of the monster split open like a cicada husk. The mutated upper half of Maria rose up. Her skin was tinted green, worm-like vines wiggled beneath her skin like living veins, and slime covered her whole body. Her heaving breasts hung like forbidden, succulent fruit. Her hypnotic eyes constantly swirled.

Hanover aimed the handgun at her, but the moment she saw the spiral, she froze. Slime spittled out when Maria roared, "His seed is mine!"

A thick vine whipped out and wrapped around Hanover's wounded leg. It effortlessly tugged Hanover along the floor and reopened the wound. It slung her about like a dog whipping its head. Hanover screamed while being slammed into furniture and wall. It felt like her leg was about to be ripped off.

The door to the student center burst open. Susan and Tony rushed in, after they pushed the despondent Santiago aside. Maria slammed Hanover against the side of Theo's bed and released her leg.

"What the fuck?!" Tony held up his firearm, but didn't know where to aim on the horror. Susan saw Theo and tried to yell out his name. However, Maria snapped her hypnotic spiral onto them, and easily seized control.

"Ah, good...more seed. Do us a favor, darling, and kill the ugly pea in front of you," Maria directed Tony. His aim shifted to the back of Susan's head. He fought to control his trigger finger. Susan heard the gun and sensed the end to her life drawing near. She, too, couldn't move against the mind control.

"And you...take yourself out. There only needs to be one bearer here. You're an eyesore," Maria commanded Hanover. The divergence of her spiral weakened the control on all three of them. Yet it only made the process torturously slow.

Hanover eventually raised the hand that held the 9mm to her head. Maria then noticed the gun wasn't in her hand, "What the..."

Theo raised the pistol and double tapped. The two bullets sheared through Maria's neck and face. Her dying grumble could be heard throughout the building. She collapsed and tumbled to the floor. It freed Theo to fall next to Hanover, and relinquished control over her, Susan, and Tony.

Susan nearly fell over, but caught herself on the bed Hanover previously laid in. Tony stumbled forward and asked if she was okay. She didn't respond, too busy processing everything. He tried to steady his gun's aim on Maria's corpse, and fumbled with his radio to report in.

"Hanover..." Theo laid a hand on his professor's still body. He turned her over on her back. She barely made a sound, was pale as a ghost, drenched in sweat, and bled profusely from her leg. Her eyes lacked energy and life, unfocused.

"Theodore...you're safe," Hanover put a trembling hand on his cheek. Cracks and wisps weathered her tone. She had nothing left at death's doors.

"I'm fine! We need to get you help. Help! Hanover needs help!" Theo shouted. It went right to the stunned Tony and Susan. The officer took one look at the leg wound, and shook his head. On closer inspection, Hanover's leg was nearly severed.

"It's okay," Hanover made him stare at her. There was a tranquility present. Now was a missable moment if not taken, "You helped me long enough. I wouldn't be a good counsellor if you were the one always caring for me."

"Don't talk like that. We are going to get through this shit," Theo wiped his face of the blood and slime caused by Maria.

"Take care of yourself. You have so much potential. They really admire you. You are not hopeless."

Droplets from Theo's eyes dripped onto her. Her breathing became shallow. He couldn't bear it and lashed out, "Don't you fucking die on me! Not after everything we went through!"

"They really depend on you..." Hanover stopped breathing. Her eyes drifted slightly. Her head came to rest against Theo's leg.

"Hanover?" Theo begged for a miracle. A surge of pain burned through his head. It came out as a wrathful, regret-filled yell. Susan was next to him. She brought him into a hug, and gave her shoulder for him to cry and scream into. The tears and blood smeared across Susan's jacket.

"I repeat; our location is compromised," Tony, frustrated, growled into his radio. Ominous white noise responded. He seethed, "Did anybody hear me? Captain? Answer me, dammit!"

"Ah!" somebody screamed outside. It was followed by a chorus of panic. Even Theo raised his head at the alert.

"Now what?" Tony jogged out. He found Santiago rolling on the floor, distraught. He screamed more and more. Tony kneeled down and tried to lay hands on him, but Santiago batted Tony away with stiff limbs.

Everybody in the student center was on their feet to witness the disturbing scene. They made noise and complaints that drowned each other out. Hank and Lucija came out after hearing the commotion, adjusting their clothes.

"Laylie?! Where the hell are you?!" Tony called into his radio. No response. He glanced over at Ashem, who sat unbothered.

Santiago's skull cracked open. Blood and slime spilled onto the floor like egg yolk. Tony shot up and away. The atmosphere shifted to silence. A pubescent plant vine budded out of the split. Half of Santiago's face slacked, as if dead. The other half remained conscious and aware. His pupils became like a kaleidoscope, and started to spiral.

Santiago's one good eye snapped to Tony. When he spoke, it was snippy and gravelly, "Give me seed."

Multiple brambles erupted out of Santiago's skull. The budding vine lashed out at the officer and tied up his throat. The rest of the brambles stabbed, whipped, or hooked nearby survivors. Bedlam erupted in the student center.

Hank and Lucija moved to help, but were hindered by many of the staffers escaping to the cafe. Jenah took a defensive position in front of Autumn, as did Lorenzo with Snowdrop. Neptune and Samantha looked to Ashem, who watched carefully.

A dozen of the survivors were skewered or entangled. Their bodies were ravaged and discarded. Almost immediately, they rose up as undead.

"No way..." Tony tried to aim his firearm at Santiago's fountain of vines, but one of them nearly broke the officer's arm and disarmed him.

The panic evolved into hysteria. Zombies lumbered forward to attack the rest of the survivors. The student center was lost.

Theo marched out of the medical office. He poignantly stepped past Tony and stood over Santiago. He aimed and fired a single shot. The brambles immediately stopped choking Tony and the others, and went limp.

Hank, Jenah, Lucija, and the two other female swimmers launched into the incoming zombies. They fought to reclaim the student center. Their cricket bats made short work of the undead. Their perseverance astonished the other survivors.

Tony rubbed his throat, finally able to funnel air through. He glanced up to Theo, "Thank you..."

Theodore teetered, and then fell unconscious. Susan moved just in time to catch his head and prevent it from cracking against the floor.

"What in the world happened?" Hank helped Tony up. It led to the remaining survivors to ask similar questions. They bombarded Tony. Doubts of safety and security were thrown his way.

"Please, I need everyone to calm down. Let me assess the situation," Tony said, exacerbated.

The crowd didn't listen. Short-term solutions were spoken, fear clutched their hearts, and Tony couldn't get a word in edgewise. People were even considering leaving and disregarding the safety measures.

Susan cut through the mess and reached out to Hank, "Help me get Theodore to a bed."

They worked as a team to carry him back into the clinic. Jenah, Autumn, and Lucija tailed them in. The crowd of survivors broke out in a disorderly argument about what to do next. They didn't give Tony any place to interject or ease their minds. He decided to abandon the mob and have a discussion with the more levelheaded ones.

Susan and Hank set Theo on a bed. The the group collectively reacted to Hanover and Maria. Susan and Tony explained what they saw.

"This is so tragic," Lucija wept for Hanover. The incident turned the safe haven on its head.

Autumn kneeled down by Hanover and silently mourned. He closed her eyes, and held her hand. Jenah stayed next to him.

"Maria never encountered a zombie. She wasn't bit. I don't understand..." Tony said.

"She's the doctor," Susan reasoned. "Sick or concerned people come here all the time. She could have contracted before everything went to Hell."

"I'm telling you guys; we're infected already," Hank kicked Maria. It made a squishy noise that even he regretted.

"Does that mean we're all ticking time bombs?" Tony wondered.

Jenah answered nonchalantly, "Pretty much."

The tension dawned on Susan and Tony. It made the commotion outside even more daunting. Susan stared at Theo.

"What if he changes?" Jenah asked, referring to Theo. Her hand tightened on her cricket bat.

"He won't," Susan immediately defended.

"Check his pupils. There might be other symptoms, but Theo told us the eyes get weird when people are changed," Hank told her. Susan obliged and everybody leaned in to see them. They were normal, if not irritated by Maria's intrusion.

"So the pupils are a tell?" Tony asked for confirmation.

Autumn confirmed, "It is. I've seen it for myself."

Tony stewed on the symptom, gauged how bad things turned out here with Maria, and then said, "Okay, here's what we'll do. I'll make the rounds and see if anybody else is showing signs. Before we clean up the bodies. Then...and then..."

Hank raised an eyebrow, "What?"

"I don't know," Tony realized. He flipped through each channel on his radio. It was only dead air, "I can't reach anybody. It's like there's nobody left."

"What about Laylie?" Susan asked. "Ashem came out of the restrooms, but I didn't see her."

"He killed her? No way," Hank implied and denied.

"I don't want to believe that. I'll have to talk to him and find her..." Tony favored denial, but her disappearance didn't make any sense. The crowd outside seemed to have simmered, "Things have gotten way out of hand."

"It's expected," Autumn absentmindedly assest. "It's confusion and anger to a problem with no answer. My class reacted the same. If it wasn't for Theo finding me, I would've ended up the same as them."

"We were fortunate enough to be eased into all this. Thanks to him," Hank nodded to his best friend. "It's a hard hurdle to jump, but once they calm their tits, we can help them get used to the changes and dangers."