All Together Now: A Zombie Story by Robert Kent

mother waving without looking at us.
    I didn't wave back. That one I don't regret.
     

23
     
     
     
    HIGH SCHOOL IS SORT OF like life on an African plain. The hippos and crocodiles stay near the river, the giraffes and monkeys stay near the trees, and the antelope and zebras roam in herds.
    As long as everybody stays in a group, nobody finds himself wandering alone, the shadow of a descending lion growing beneath him.
    So it was that Monday morning in the main hallway of Harrington High School. The stoners roamed together, stinking of the pot they'd smoked in the car they arrived in, exploding out of it like baked clowns.
    The skateboard kids had their section of the hall, talking about skateboarding because they weren't allowed to skate in the school parking lot. Many of the skateboard kids overlapped with the stoners.
    Goths grouped together, probably discussing the work of Edgar Allen Poe or who had the cheapest deals on eyeliner or whatever it was they talked about.
    In the cafeteria, a whole group of geeks gathered around one phone watching a movie trailer.
    At a table beside them, a group of nerds flocked around a tablet watching a press conference about some new technological gizmo to replace the last technological gizmo they'd bought.
    In every group at least one kid was drinking Chrome Lightning.
    There was a 12-foot banner for it on the far wall depicting a cool guy with a sexy chick reaching for the bottle of Chrome Lightning he was holding behind his back. Both of them had looks on their faces like they were totally going to rip each other's clothes off immediately after they drank the soda.
    In less than four hours, there would be only two groups. No jocks, no preps, no nerds, no geeks, no dweebs, no Goths, no stoners, no skateboard kids.
    Only the dead and the soon-to-be-dead.
    Michelle went off with the preps, of course. When your father owns the biggest business in town, you have to hang with the preps because no one else will have you.
    I went off with my friends, but before I had a chance to talk with any of them—the last chance I was ever going to have—the warning bell rang and the groups dispersed to class.
    Shortly after we stood and in unison pledged our allegiance to the flag and the republic for which it stands, Principal Stender came on over the intercom:
    "Attention students: We are effecting an immediate ban on all soda products. Soda of any kind is no longer allowed in classrooms, the hallways, or even the cafeteria.
    "Any student or faculty member found in breach of this ban will be subject to immediate discipline up to and including possible expulsion or termination."
    Principal Stender paused awkwardly, then added, "Thank you."
    The entire school erupted with voices of students in every classroom and teachers asking them to be quiet. Just as the noise started to hush, the overhead intercom pinged on again.
    "Teachers, please consult your email inboxes. Thank you."
    There were students drinking bottles of Chrome Lightning as these announcements were made. Teachers made them throw their drinks out and fired up their email accounts as quickly as they could.
    By second period, most classrooms had their televisions on, everyone watching coverage of the first attacks in Chicago and the fire that spread to five city blocks in less than an hour. Even the reporters weren't entirely sure what we were seeing.
    "Chicago police appear to be shooting at citizens," one reporter said. "No one is certain why—did he just get up? He's getting up!"
    In third period, a freshman girl brought a message to me from the office. It was from Dad. All it said was "coming to pick you up at 11:30."
    If only he'd come sooner, I might've missed the deaths of so many of the kids I'd grown up with.
     

24
     
     
     
    IF THERE'D BEEN A FIRE or a shooting at Harrington High School that day or a bus crash or some other tragedy that took the lives of 200 or 300 students, it would've been a big deal.
    I don't know the actual