Chapter 6

As the alarm sounded, smoke quickly filled the room. What a way to end your last day at the company, Ricki thought. If she just tended her resignation one day earlier, she wouldn't have to worry about being trapped in a smoke infested room with panicked coworkers running around like headless chickens.

Get a grip, people! We're scientists, she thought. That's when she heard the painful cry for help amid the chaos. The shriek was soon followed by another horrific scream, and then another. The screams were all different in tone and pitch, but they all conveyed the same thought: pure utter terror.

"What is going on?" asked Ricki.

Ricki headed toward the shrieks, which seemed to be mainly coming from the lab. As she approached the lab, she spotted her friend, Kelcie, who was struggling to escape from the locked arms of another scientist. If she didn't know any better, the scientist with the vice-like grip around Kelcie looked a lot like that incompetent Yoshi.

"Yoshi? What are you doing?"

When Ricki grabbed a hold of Yoshi's shoulder, Yoshi turned around releasing his grip on Kelcie. Ricki's eyes widened with terror when she saw Yoshi's sheared, burnt and lacerated face. Yoshi's tongue almost fell out of the gaping hole on the side of his face when he moaned.

"Kel, RUN!"

Before Ricki could utter another word, Yoshi sank his teeth into Ricki's flesh and tore it clean off of her body. Ricki screamed in sheer pain. The scream echoed in Kelcie's mind as she stood on the streets of Boston with Ford.

Ford was keeled over gasping for air. If his burly overweight size were not proof enough, the sucking wind after running a block or two was an indication that Ford's days of being a star track and field athlete were long gone.

"Zombies?!? No fucking way!" gasped Ford. "I'd say cool if I didn't just witness a horde of them eating Kostas."

"Yeah, Kostas," Kelcie solemnly replied. She exhaled a deep sigh of disbelief. "Ricki, too"

"Ricki?!? Fuck no."

Kelcie nodded.

"I need to find a lab," said Kelcie.

"A lab? Um, we were just at your company which has a lab," Ford responded.

"I know, but the place is infested now. As much as I like to go all Dead Rising, I'd rather not chance it with just the two of us."

"Kel, what place is going to let two strangers walk in to use their lab?"

"I don't know and I don't care. I have to do something! I'm responsible for this outbreak. All of these innocent people's deaths are because of me!"

Chapter 5

"What exactly is this?" asked the befuddled bartender. Squinting, he held the plastic identification card in his hand up to the light.

"It's a Massachusetts ID Card," replied Jenna.

"You don't have a driver's license? Seriously? How old are you?"

"Old enough," Jenna responded. Her excitement over being carded in the first place was quickly waning.

The bartender was so intrigued by the state identification card that he had to show it off to the cuter bartender at the other end of the bar along with the rest of the wait staff.

Jenna feigned a laugh over the bartender's amusement. Just give me the damn drink, she thought. Yes, it was true that she was over 30 and did not know how to drive. The thought of getting behind the wheel of a car absolutely terrified her. Luckily for her, she had a handful of able-bodied drivers at her disposal.

The bartender finally returned with a handful of apple martinis. Jenna quickly snatched her identification card back along with the martini glasses. After the embarrassing attention that she received for being over 30 and not having a driver's license, she couldn't imbibe the booze fast enough.

If the other two apple martinis weren't already spoken for, she would have downed them on the spot. Instead, she brought them back to the table and handed one each to her friends, Andreina and Calista.

Jenna was thrilled to get the old gang together for a fun night out. With everyone's busy schedule of late, she felt somewhat out of the loop with her friends. Andreina "Drina" had been pulling many late hours at work; Grace was not conveniently accessible via public transportation anymore having moved north of Boston; And the Calista "Calli" that she remembered had socially disappeared ever since Calli started dating some bald guy with a mysterious job.

As Jenna reminisced about the past, she wanted tonight to be just like those days of yore when they were young and carefree. After all, they had known each other since childhood. Their journey went from the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants to Sex and the City. And at its current rate, it would be Cougar Town in several years especially since they were quickly becoming "that group" of women hanging out at the bar.

Clanging the glasses together, Jenna made a quick toast to their long friendship before taking a large swig of the apple martini. The martini felt great going down. There was definitely going to be more yummy apple goodness before the night was over. She could almost guarantee that.

"Hey, did you guys start without me?" teased Grace as she entered the Irish bar.

Chapter 4

"Oh my god!" shrieked Arelle. "I can't believe it! I can't believe we got front row tickets to the concert! You are the best sister!"

On any normal day, Arelle would have a scowl on her face. Arelle looked like Hello Kitty's friend, Badtz-Maru, if Badtz-Maru were female, Chinese, and not a penguin. Similar to the character, Kim, from Lela Lee's "Angry Little Girls" comic, Arelle could find faults with everything and everyone.

But not tonight! Tonight, she was happy as a clam because she was attending the concert of a lifetime; her favorite boy band was back! Fifteen years ago, like any crazed teenage girl, she had posters upon posters of the band decorating her room. She owned every album ever released by them, including the Christmas album.

"That's what big sisters are for, right?" joked Arelle's sister, Andee. "Surprise!"

Although older, Andee was considerably shorter than her sibling and she had just as much spunk. While Arelle was beaming from ear to ear holding concert tickets in her hand, Andee seemed to step forward and then back, alternating legs, from side to side before throwing her leg out for a roundhouse kick. Andee was practicing a technique called the martelo in the Brazilian art of capoeira.

For Andee, capoeira combined many of the things she enjoyed: martial arts, sports, and music. Granted, Andee's taste in music was a little different than her sisters. She was into less pop, more alternative. Nevertheless, she enjoyed spending some quality time with her kid sister which was something she hadn't done in a while due to her many nights of martial arts training.

"Now what songs do they sing again?" asked Andee with a smile.

"You have got to be kidding!"

Andee chuckled. She enjoyed getting a rise out of her sister. With beads of sweat forming on her forehead, Andee stopped the ginga, the basic capoeira move of stepping forward and back.

"That's it?" asked Arelle.

"That's it."

"Fantastic! Does that mean you're done?" asked Arelle. "We can leave this God-awful smelling gym now? It smells like something died in here. When you first asked me to meet you here, I was like... really?"

Andee briefly thought about stalling and drawing her workout a little longer, just so that her sister would have to be subjected to the stench of the old stuffy gym for a few more minutes. And truth be told, Andee didn't even smell the odor anymore, which was made up mainly of man funk. Her nose had gotten used to the smell.

"Of course we can go. Just let me hit the showers and get changed," replied Andee. "I have a concert to go to with my baby sister!"

Andee playfully reached over and pinched Arelle's cheek as though Arelle were still a teeny toddler. Arelle just stood there and rolled her eyes. She was not so amused.

"Watch it! I'm taller than you now."

Chapter 3

"You haven’t seen Road House?" Ford asked with surprise. "You have no idea what you are missing. It's the like the best movie ever!"

"No, but I do own Red Dawn", responded Kostas.

Immediately after, the two of them both yelled "Wolverines!" at the top of their lungs.

Ford rubbed his beard and gave a hearty chuckle as he and Kostas geeked it up inside Ford’s compact car which was parked in a company lot. Prior to their discussion of Patrick Swayze movies, the two of them had random conversations about comic books, music, and web memes.

Based solely on appearance, the two of them looked like polar opposites. Of the two, Kostas was easily the better dressed with his suit and his pair of Ferragamo shoes, which were but one of many expensive shoes that he owned. Ford, on the other hand, was decked out in a hockey jersey and jeans.

The thing that they had in common, aside from all things geeky, was that they were both quite burly. In fact, in the gay community, the two of them could have been considered "bears" for their hair and their size. Unfortunately for the gay community, Ford was straight. The verdict was still out on Kostas and his many pairs of expensive shoes.

Ford dialed a number on his smartphone and held it to his ear. When the voice mail message came on, he immediately hung up and sighed with frustration.

"Come on Kel, what's taking you so long? You should have been done hours ago." Ford uttered to himself.

Kostas, meanwhile, amused himself with his smartphone. He was a constant surveyor of his smartphone whether it was to update his social networking status or to read the status of any of his socially networked "friends". Kostas had to be connected.

While looking down at his smartphone and half-listening to Ford complaining about their long idle wait, Kostas was startled by the rapping against the passenger side window. Standing just outside the car door was a tall lanky man with a slightly disheveled look. The man appeared to be homeless with his tattered clothing and his less than clean demeanor. Kostas put the window down to ask what the man wanted.

"Do you have any spare change?" asked the man in a voice that sounded like he had smoked way too many cigarettes in his time.

Kostas shook his head, and politely turned the man away before returning his attention back to his smartphone. As the homeless man stepped away from the car, the stairway door in the parking lot burst open. Kelcie darted out from the stairway, stumbling over her own "elegant toes". With a look of panic still on her face, she scampered toward Ford and Kostas.

"Kel?!?" asked Ford as he quickly got out of the car to help her up. "What on earth?"

"Start the car! Start the car!" yelled Kelcie. As Kelcie got to her feet, her eyes widened with more terror. "Oh no! Kostas, look out!"

Kostas looked up from his smartphone. Before another moment's notice, a pair of arms reached through the car door and grabbed Kostas. Kostas quickly turned his head to see a face of putrified flesh and teeth. It was the last thing he saw before the teeth sank into his skin. Kostas screamed in agony. "Wol... ver..."

"Holy fuck!" exclaimed Ford. "What the hell?!? Where did that thing come from?"

Before Ford could get an answer, more walking corpses in lab coats descended onto Kostas, ripping and tearing away at his flesh. By now, the inside of the car was completely covered in blood. The nice pair of Ferragamo shoes were completely ruined.

"We’ve got to. NOW!!" warned Kelcie.

Chapter 2

A loud ringtone chimed from within the cute small black purse sitting in the passenger side of the car. Keeping one arm on the steering wheel, Grace reached over, unzipped the purse and started rummaging through her contents as she zipped past a few cars on the highway.

The first item she pulled out was her pager. She darted a glance from the car in front of her to the pager to see if a number displayed on the screen. No number. Whew! Grace felt relieved before tossing the pager back onto the passenger seat.

Grace hated that pager. If her job didn't require her to carry one, she would have thrown the pager out the window and over the famous Lenny Zakim bridge that she was currently speeding over. Besides, she thought, who still carries a pager these days? Pagers are so 90s.

Leave it to the government, her employer, to be twenty years behind in the times. Apparently, the reason why the government still had its "Emergency Management" employees use pagers is because no one knows how to shut the system off. Typical.

While changing driving lanes, Grace rummaged through her purse again. She managed to pull out her smartphone only to see that she missed a call from her friend, Jenna. Oops. Within mere seconds, her smartphone chimed again as a text message came in.

"whr r u? cncrt strts n 2 hrs! – jenna".

Grace cracked a smile. She knew that she was already running late. Grace always ran late for things. She would have shot Jenna a quick text in response, were it not for the fact that she were driving.

The concert Grace was attending was for Boston's own famous boy band of the 80s. After a 15 year hiatus, the band decided to reunite and tour again. And nothing gets middle-aged women hooting and hollering like a handful of middle-aged men singing teeny-bopper pop tunes as though they were still teenagers.

The moment tickets went on sale for the concert, Grace and several of her friends snatched them up before they were sold out. After all, Boston fans are passionate about all things Boston; Boy bands included, especially with the rumor that one of the band's song was originally written to be the theme song for one of the professional sports teams.

Anyway, it didn't take long for the tickets to be sold out. In anticipation of the concert being a memorable event, Grace and her friends organized a night out together. This was to be a night of fun and frivolity, as though they were reliving their carefree teenage years during the band's heyday.

Interestingly enough, the band was one of the few things Grace enjoyed while she was a teenager. Grace disliked her formative teenage years, mostly because she didn't think she was ever cool enough to hang out with the so-called popular crowd. In addition to her friends, though, the band and their music were always there for her.

Grace put her turn signal on. Within moments, her car took the next exit ramp off of the highway. The fun was about to begin, she thought.

Chapter 1

Kelcie woke with a shock. While still somewhat groggy, she frantically inspected the Hazmat suit she was wearing for any rips or tears. Thankfully, everything was still intact. She would have breathed of sigh of relief were it not for the fact that the room she was in was filled with a thick dark smoke.

She was not sure how long she was out. The last thing she remembered was that she was in the lab working with Yoshi, her incompetent scientific counterpart from Japan. Kelcie dreaded working with Yoshi in the laboratory. She thought he had more in common with the video game character of the same name than an actual scientist.

"Yoshi, what happened?" asked Kelcie. "Yoshi?"

Her question was met with dead silence.

Unable to see clearly through the smoke, Kelcie reached around until she found a wall. Tracing the wall with her hand, she made it to the window where she began pounding the glass. THUD! THUD! THUD! Unfortunately, the rapping of her fists was barely audible on the other side of the glass.

Discouraged, Kelcie examined the window frame. Her eyes quickly lit up with excitement. This was the perfect opportunity, she thought. She couldn't pass it up. After all, how many chances could she get?

It was always Kelcie's dream to kick something in, to kick anything in. Although her preference was for kicking in a door, kicking out a window would also suffice. Her dream may have stemmed from the fact that, like a typical scientist, she wanted to justify her relatively large feet, or as she liked to refer to them as her "elegant toes".

Kelcie peered through the thick smoke to see if anyone were watching. A part of her was excited for someone to witness her triumphant accomplishment of attaining one of her lifelong dreams. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of what she thought was Yoshi, but the figure was quickly engulfed by the smoke.

"Yoshi? Is that you? Are you all right?" asked Kelcie again. Like before, there was nothing but silence.

After a brief pause, Kelcie shrugged her shoulders. With a swift thrusting kick, Kelcie’s "elegant toes" made contact with the glass. THUD! Nothing. The window did not budge. Well, Kelcie thought, at least she tried. How many opportunities during the normal course of a day does a scientist get to kick something in?

Before she could even think of an answer to her own question, a pair of arms grabbed her from behind. Kelcie gasped in terror when she turned to see who it was that held a vice-like grip around her. It was Yoshi!

Yoshi's protective mask was sheared, revealing a face that had been burnt and lacerated. In fact, it looked as though something had blown off the entire side of his face as there was a large gaping hole where Yoshi's right cheek used to be. Through the sinews of the flesh that remained, his tongue seemed still intact.

With a dead sunken look, Yoshi uttered a guttural moan before pulling Kelcie deeper into the dark thick smoke.