Destiny City was in ruins.

The moment she saw the destroyed fountain in the middle of the Shopping Center, she grinned. The fountain was stained red - there was red all over the city, but the water that continued to splash out of the fountain fell into a pool of blood. All around, bodies lay mauled and torn apart. Organs and flesh littered the ground like confetti after a parade. Zombies were roaming the streets, which meant every living being's life was now endangered. The Zombie Apocalypse had finally, at long last, arrived.

And Veronica Harvey welcomed it with open arms.

Well, she would have, anyways, had she not been holding on to her trusty crowbar. The Zombie Apocalypse of Destiny City was a weekly dream for her. Each time it was slightly different in how she managed to save Cora and Dylan (and sometimes Jesse - he tended to get eaten more often than not, however) but it always ended the same. Ronnie, Zombie Killer Professional, would attack and defeat all opposing zombie forces and would rescue her best friend just in time for the Army to show up.

Tonight's version had her starting off at the Shopping Center - she liked this version. This meant Cora would be near the video game arcade, and at least three dozen zombies would be standing in the way.

"Ronnie!"

Her head turned - nobody ever called her name in this dream. At least, not until near the ending, when she rescued the remaining survivors. But there, plain as day, stood Cora, bat in hand, yards away from the fountain. She looked terrified (she always did, poor thing) but she was staring straight at Ronnie, tears streaming down her fair cheeks. "Oh, Ronnie... not you too..."

Confused, the strawberry-blonde turned around, expecting to see a horde running her way. But there was nothing. Turning back, she once again caught herself staring at Cora... staring at her. Perplexed over her best friend's reaction, Ronnie looked down.

She wasn't holding a crowbar after all. She was holding an arm.

"No!" She shrieked as she dropped the offending body part, and then stopped to gasp as the sound only came out as a coarse, gargled moan. Could she not even speak anymore? Her hands, her arms... her tan skin was gone, replaced with peeling flesh and sores dripping with puss and blood. No. This couldn't be happening. This wasn't how these dreams went. She got to kill the zombies, she got to save the day. She couldn't be a zombie!

Looking over at her friend, she stumbled forward, desperate to convince Cora that no - it was Ronnie still, she was still Veronica, she wasn't going to hurt her! "Cooora, Coooora!"

Cora didn't seem to understand. She just stood there and cried, a bat gripped tightly in her small hands. Veronica felt like crying - no, she was crying as Cora raised the bat high overhead. They were both crying, both all too aware of the inevitable ending.

The bat came crashing down - and Veronica woke up with a jolt.

Hands clutched the bedspread as she sat up in her twin-sized bed. Her room was normal, everything was normal as it always was when she awoke from her typical zombie dream. Only, this one hadn't been very typical. This one had been a ******** nightmare.

As her heartbeat began to return to normal, she laid back down on her bed and stared up at the ceiling. After that dream, Ronnie had a feeling she wouldn't be going back to sleep for the rest of the night.