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Horrifying screams, blood-curdling snarls and a generally frightening raucous that constantly suggested an impending doom; Arianna didn’t know what the hell was going on.

She remembered the fire, that awful fire and the screaming of those less fortunate, she wished she could have helped them but that really wouldn’t have been practical; it was only by a stroke of luck that she escaped herself. Apparently, for Ari, being a snotty b***h had its advantages. Long distrustful of the, what she deemed, mediocre cleaning staff, she had procured extra sheets of her own and kept them neatly tucked in one of her dresser drawers. The only way she could ensure her bed was truly fit for her to sleep on. It was also the only way she managed to escape the burning inferno that prevented her from leaving her room on the second floor. Oh, how it saddened her to think of the thousand thread count Egyptian cotton sheets being ruined, but she quickly had to reason that if there was one important enough reason, it was saving her life. So, in a style that would have made MacGyver proud, she tied those ridiculously expensive sheets together and valiantly climbed down the school wall. And by valiantly, one means she was bawling her eyes out, prone to screaming and generally playing the damsel in distress role. Which was pointless, since when people are trying to escape a burning building, they aren’t going to stop to admire and sympathize for the courageous girl grappling with the brick. But she could pretend.

Thinking of herself and only herself in this time of need, Arianna’s first thought upon reaching the ground was to run. Actually, her first thought was, Wow, I’m really glad I bought those durable sheets, but that’s beside the point. Her second thought was run, and run fast. She desperately wanted distance from that dangerous fire so she booted it towards the edge of the forest where she could safely cower behind the bushes, sobbing ‘woe is me’ as the school and whatever was left inside crashed to the ground. It was a good thing she didn’t have any friends; it certainly allotted her a lot more grieving time for herself (and those sheets, and all her clothes, and her diary, her planner, her poster of the kitten with a bad hair day… oh why, God, why did you have to take the poster? Why did have you make that kitten’s day worse? Whyyyy?). She even prayed a little for her safekeeping. After all, she didn’t wear those cross earrings because she was a Goth, oh dear lord, no. It didn’t matter that she only seemed to pray when the s**t hit the fan, Arianna would firmly tell you she was a believer in sweet, tender, loving Jesus.

Yet, despite Arianna’s prayers, despite her strong-willed being, she was bound to be affected by the disaster. As it was, she didn’t move from her hiding spot for a very long time, she simply watched as the school burned, occasionally curling up to sleep beneath the brush that afforded her a very covert hiding place. She cried a little more. But as morning rose, something awoke with in Ari; her spirit seemed to lift as the sun peeked over the smoke-filled horizon. It was a magical moment where time seemed to stand still and the earth was quiet and all that mattered was simply Arianna- Okay, so basically she manned up, put on her big girl panties and allowed her foolish curiosity to guide her back to the smouldering rubble. Well, foolish curiosity and her poor grumbling tummy. It really hadn’t been that long since she’d eaten but the poor, poor girl had just been through a trauma and she was just utterly famished from the stress.

And while the self-centered attitude she adopted might have made her appear a little dumb, Arianna was quite the opposite. Hell, that sheet stunt was on par with the likes of MacGyver, remember? Geeze, give her a little credit. So, anyway, Arianna was hungry and she certainly wasn’t going to stoop to eating bugs and leaves. Is there even any nutritional value in leaves? Whatever, it didn’t matter, she wasn’t about to consume the filth of rugged nature. No, what Ari desperately hoped was that amidst the wreckage, some semblance of the kitchen might be left and even more hopefully, that some semblance of food had survived. Sure, it might be a little burnt, but it definitely beat eating a bug! So she stepped gingerly between smoking pieces of brick and drywall, shedding a small tear as she thought she saw what must be the poor ashes of her sheets, all that was left of them. She paused a moment, every now and then, to map out where the kitchen was and where it might have fallen. A good memory and some additional logic (and a massive amount of luck, let’s be honest) left the girl standing in a crumpled frame of was once a doorway and in front of her lay, beneath remnants of the roof, the wreckage of the stove and fridge from the third floor. Beneath that, lay squashed pieces of the second floor kitchen.

She faced a dilemma. Did she go for the upstairs fridge and see if there was any food? It was certainly the smarter idea but of course, this was Arianna and the thought of eating some stranger’s nasty snacks was beyond her comprehension. So, rolling up her sleeves and with a heavy sigh, the girl set to the arduous task of digging out what was left of the second floor kitchen. It was a wholly stupid idea, especially with only one man on the job, but Arianna wanted what was hers. She spent forever trying to lift and push things out of the way, and several hours later landed her with the crushed frame of the fridge. By some miracle, the steel frame had kept the contents of the fridge from burning up. Unfortunately, all that was left inside was some juice, a couple water bottles and a pan of some disgustingly dark gooey smelly mess… She stared at it, trying to imagine how on earth it was ever something edible. To Arianna, this was not a blessing. It was disappointing, because none of these things were hers and she was thinking now that it would have just been easier to have sucked it up and ate a bug. Until it dawned on her; that gross-looking brown substance was the remnants of the brownies that one girl had made, Elle was her name. It had that awful smell just like hers; it had to have been the same ones. Those are still here? Ari thought incredulously. She wasn’t surprised that they survived the fire, however, just astonished that the girl was so indecent as to not clear her certainly stale and old brownies out of the fridge. Oh wait, she died. Insert brief second of Arianna feeling bad and then, the moment is gone.

Long story short, the fridge turned out to be, much like the sheets, a saving grace for Arianna. While she assured herself the police cars and fire trucks would be arriving at any moment, this was not the case. And after awhile, things started to get scary. She could swear she heard screams from the distance, and for some reason, she couldn’t shake the awful feeling that something terrible was going on. It was only by pure luck that she had yet to encounter anyone and even more fortunate that she was frightening enough into hiding in the fridge. The fire had obviously caused the appliance to cease to function and conveniently placed it on its side and so by removing the shelves and propping the door open a fraction with some piece of rock, Arianna was able to create a pretty sweet hideout- and still breathe. Barely of course, since the fumes of those brownies were making her nauseous. But she had to stay strong, who knew when help would arrive? And the brownies would seem to be her only source of sustenance, along with the juice and water.

Zooming to present day, that is how Arianna survived the whole zombie ordeal this long: by hiding in a fridge and unknowingly getting high on special brownies.

While those screams and shouts should have terrified her, all she could think was,


“Whoa, man... Just whoa.”

Much like Elle, Arianna was unaware of just what exactly was going on at Barren Pines. This didn’t work to her favour when she heard the proclaimed dead girl utter blasphemy as Ari lay cowering in her Frigidaire fort. In life, Arianna had little time for the unmotivated and even less time for science. As such, their paths had rarely crossed and Ari, not one to reserve judgement, had labelled her a slacker and a troublemaker; Elle was definitely someone she didn’t want to get involved with. Although, those brownies were pretty good and poor Ari was having a hard time feeling any negative thoughts at the moment. Everything was just… It was all lovely.

Except for Elle’s comment, that was not okay in Ari’s book (which was probably the Bible… Just saying…). She prepared herself for a valiant bursting from her shelter, angels flying about and heralding her sudden appearance with golden trumpets, golden tendrils of ribbon, confetti everywhere- Unfortunately, Ari was high and all she really managed to accomplish was a clumsy thrusting open of the refrigerator door, whereupon she nearly fell as her wobbly legs struggled to support her. Remember, not only was she high as a kite, but she’d also been living curled up in a fridge for the past week.

She thrust her arm towards Elle, finger pointing accusingly once it actually acquired its target as apparently special brownies also impair your aim.

“God is SO real- AAAAAAAAAH! What the hell happened to your face?” Her matter-of-fact know-it-all tone was abruptly interrupted by a careening screech as her eyes finally focused on the dead girl’s features. Ari hadn’t really questioned why she could hear a dead girl’s voice before, but she certainly was now.

“W-what, what are you, man? Some kind of… Zombie? Whooooa… Please don’t eat my brains!”

Ari was swaying dangerously, as though she might faint at any moment. A week’s perma-high and encountered your dead schoolmate who apparently wasn’t really dead surely wasn’t good for one’s consciousness.

Arianna was about to vomit, the intense stench of Elle’s rotted and withered flesh was worse than those God (sorry!) damn stale brownies.

“Blazed?!” she shrieked, her eyes unexplainably wide as they watched Elle’s head loll about. “What on earth is going on?! I most certainly am not an idiot! Just… What the hell?!”

She neglected to comment on Elle’s quip about her sexual endeavours. Of course she was a virgin; she was saving herself until marriage, duh! There were more pressing matters at hand now! Ari shuddered, trembling as she felt one of those horrid talons clasp her shoulder. Elle’s chilling words that followed would be enough to knock the high out of anyone, and it was doing a good job of turning Ari’s high into an all-time low. All she could think of was, Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh, I’m going to die, I’m going to die. My beautiful face, not my face! I won’t be able to have an open casket; I don’t want to be remembered as some poor disfigured corpse! The frightened, stupidly vain girl would have wailed the last part aloud if she hadn’t been too dumbfounded to speak.

Oh, if only there had been another brownie in reach! Edible courage, where're you at?