Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ruth, Richie, and Peter all sat at a table in the corner of Beanie’s. Peter had been complaining about his hot chocolate taking too long. 

“I’ve been waiting for-fucking-ever!” He messed with his bow tie. 

“It’ll be okay, Pete,” Ruth said, looking over at the barista, who was in an argument with a man in a trench coat. Ruth giggled as she watched the barista flip the man off as he walked out of the coffee shop. 

The three watched as a red-haired barista walked out from the back. “Emma, what’s the deal over here?” She asked. 

“That’s it!” Pete shot up from his seat. “She wouldn’t sing for him, and I still haven’t gotten my hot chocolate.” 

Richie buried his face in his hands. “Oh, my god,” he muttered. 

“I have very low blood sugar,” Pete said as he sat back down. 

Richie and Ruth stared at their friend, dumbfounded. 

“What? I need my hot chocolate.” Pete crossed his arms. “We’ve been here forever, there’s a line, and the barista isn’t doing her job. Look,” he said as he pointed to Emma talking to a man in a brown suit, “ He got his coffee and he just got here. Excuse me!” Pete called out. “I have been waiting a very long while !” 

“She’s going to spit in his hot chocolate, for sure,” Ruth whispered to Richie. 

“He kinda deserves it,” Richie said. He watched as Pete finally got his hot chocolate. 

“Oh, guys!” Ruth pulled out her phone. “I’m going to see Mamma Mia at the starlight tonight! My mom got me and her tickets. I can’t wait.” 

“That’s cool," Richie said. 

“What are you doing tonight, Rich?” 

Richie shrugged. “I have some geometry homework, probably watch Attack on Titan. Other than that, I’m not doing anything. Do you want to come over?” 

Outside, the sky became a wash of dark gray and blues. The rain started to pour down onto the pavement. 

“Shit, we should probably get going.” Richie grabbed his bag. 

“See ya at school, nerds!” Ruth called out and took off to her house, leaving Pete and Richie huddled under the overhang of a nearby shop. 

“Do you think you can call Ted to pick us up?” Richie asked. 

“I’ll try,” Pete said as he took out his phone. He tried to call Ted but was sent to voicemail. “Goddamnit, Ted.” 

“It’s fine, we’ll walk.” 

• • • 

Max Jägerman stuffed his muddy football cleats in his duffle bag. “Seriously, practice canceled because of a little rain?” 

Kyle pulled his soaked shirt off and threw it over the bench. “Would you want to practice on that field?” Kyle swung open his locker, grabbing a pair of socks from his bag. “It’s bad enough when the weather is nice.” He pointed at Jason, who was scrubbing mud off of his face. “Jason already ate shit!” He laughed. 

“Not only that, coach doesn’t want us getting hit by lightning,” Jason said as he got the last bit of mud off his face. 

Max rolled his eyes. “It’s a little lightning. It’s not gonna kill you.” He pulled his dry sneakers on. “You guys are a bunch of little bitches. It’s fine.” He slung his bag over his shoulder and sighed. “You losers wanna go to Miss Retros?” 

• • • 

Grace Chastity knocked on the door of Tom Houston's house. Mr. Houston greeted her and welcomed her inside and out of the rain. 

“Thanks for coming on such short notice, Grace,” He said. 

Grace smiled. “It’s no problem, Mr Houston.” She took off her wet shoes and neatly set them by the door. “I love watching Tim.” She looked around for him. 

“Oh, he’s in his room.” Mr. Houston put his coat on and grabbed his keys. “He hasn’t had the best day. I’d say just leave him alone.” He opened the door. “If he needs anything, he’ll come to you.” 

Grace nodded. “Okay, Mr. Houston.” She waved to him as he left. 

The door closed, leaving Grace alone in the living room. 

She sat on the couch and pulled a pink bible from her backpack. It was the bible she used to take notes on scripture with a pink highlighter and glitter pen. 

Thunder cracked outside, shaking the house. 

“Grace?” Tim looked at her from the hallway. 

“Oh, hi, Tim,” she said with a smile. “Do you want to sit with me?” 

Tim said nothing as he sat next to Grace. “What are you reading?” He asked. 

“My bible.” She held it up for him. “I’m taking notes for my next bible study.” She handed him her glitter pen. “I like the pretty pink pens. It goes nice with my highlighters.” She giggled. “And it matches the cover!” 

Tim nodded. “It’s raining really hard.” 

Grace looked out the window. “It is, isn’t it.” She looked down at her bible. “Y’know, there’s a story about a big storm in the bible. Much bigger than this one.” She flipped somewhere toward the beginning. “Noah’s Arc. It’s about a great big storm, where it rained for forty days and nights.” A pink sticky note was stuck onto the page, with a drawing of a rainbow on it. “It rained so much, it flooded the whole Earth. So God told a man named Noah to build a big boat. He told Noah to put two of every animal on it, so they could be safe from the flood.” 

“Why did it rain so much?” 

“Because the world was too violent. It made God sad, so he reset the world–in a way. But after it stopped raining, he gave the world a rainbow.” She pointed to the sticky note. “Now, every time it rains, you see a rainbow. It’s a promise from God to never flood the world again. It’s a beautiful gift God gave to us.” She closed the bible. “If you want, we can look for a rainbow when the rain stops.”

“What if the rain doesn’t stop?” Tim looked outside. “What if God kills us all, again?” 

Grace’s eyes widened. “No, no.” She pulled him closer. “God doesn’t do that. That’s what the rainbow is for. It’s a sign of his promise to never let us all die again. A little rain is fine, good even.” She nudged him with her shoulder. “God will protect you. You're his child too, and he loves all his children. God will always help us.” Grace looked at Tim, who looked like he was about to cry. “Hey,” she said, “Look at me. Y’know what makes me feel safe.” 

Tim looked at her and tilted his head. “What?”

“We can pray,” she suggested. “We can ask God to protect us from this storm.” 

Tim nodded. Grace closed her hands and told Tim to do the same. They both closed their eyes. 

“Dear, God,” she started, “Please protect me and Tim from the storm tonight, as well as the coming days. Amen.” 

Chapter Text

Richie and Ruth sat in their geometry class, watching the door intently for any sign of their friend. 

“Yeah, me and my mom got there,” Ruth said, not taking her eyes off the door, “and a meteor was right in the center. The whole thing was blown up! Ugh!” 

Stephanie Lauter walked through the door and threw her bag down under one of the desks in the back. 

Richie looked at his phone, texting Pete again with no answer. “Are you sure you haven’t heard from him today? Has he answered you at all?” He showed Ruth all of the unanswered texts from that morning. 

Ruth shook her head. “I haven’t. I called him a few times but he never picked up. I’m starting to get worried, he never ignores us.” 

Just as the bell rang, Max Jägerman walked into the classroom, but not with his normal look of menace on his face. His eyes were uncertain and his mouth was fixed with a frown. Most of all, he looked confused. 

Without thinking, Richie asked, “What’s up with him?” He quickly put his head in his hands and hoped Max hadn’t heard him. 

Max sat down behind Richie. He didn’t say anything. He just looked down at his empty desk. 

“Maybe he’s seen Pete?” Ruth whispered. 

Richie tapped Max on the shoulder. “M-Max?” 

Max looked up at him, his confused expression didn’t change. 

“Hav–have you seen Pete at all today?” 

Max shook his head. “Why the hell would I have seen him? He’s your friend.” 

“Are you okay, man?” Stephanie asked as she picked up her bag and moved closer to them. “You seem . . . out of it.” 

Max silently nodded. “Yeah, yeah.” He looked at her. “I’m all good.” 

“You don’t look like it, what’s goin on?” 

He shook his head again, like he was trying to figure something out in his mind. “It’s nothing. It’s just–” He took a breath. “I–uh–I heard my dad this morning. He was . . . singing?” He closed his eyes. 

“Is that a bad thing?” Richie asked. He wasn’t sure why he was able to talk to Max Jägerman. He never talked to nerds. 

“He never sings. He says it's for sissies. It’s not something he would do.” He held his phone tightly. “It’s really freaking me out!” 

“What was he singing?” Ruth asked as she checked her phone for any texts from Pete. 

“I don’t know,” Max said, “There weren’t any words, really. Just like–uh–la dee da . . . something.” He looked up at the three around him. 

Steph paused. “Wait.” She stared at him. “Was he singing in your house?” 

Max rolled his eyes. “Where the fuck else would he be?” 

“And he was singing like ‘la dee da da’ something?” She asked. 

Max nodded. 

“I heard the cheerleaders singing that in the parking lot when I got here,” Steph said. “They tried getting me to sing. I told them I didn’t have time and went inside.” 

“What the fuck?” Max muttered. 

“How can that be possible?” Richie asked. 

Ruth shrugged. “Maybe it’s a new song or something?” 

Steph shook her head. “No, I doubt that. I’ve never heard anything like that. Plus, they were dancing around. Stacey and Brenda always bother me about new dances and cheers. I would’ve heard about it. 

The four sat in silence, trying to come up with any explanation for the singing that morning. 

“Stephanie Lauter, please report to Mr. Blim’s office.” 

With all eyes on her, Steph picked up her bag and left the classroom. She hadn’t done anything that week, so she had no clue what she was being called to the office for. 

When she got there, Mr. Blim was sitting at his desk. 

“Mr. Blim, I haven’t done anything,” she said. “I don’t know why you called me in here. If it was Stacey, Brenda, Kyle, or whoever, I swear I had nothing to do with it. I promi–” 

“ What do you want, Steph? ” He sang. 

“What?” She stood in front of the desk as he looked up at her from his chair. 

Mr. Blim stood up. “ Tell me what you desire to see,” he sang as he stood up and walked around the desk, “ Your deepest intent, Steph.” 

Steph backed up and reached for the door, but Mr. Blim grabbed her arm. 

“ What do you see for your family ?” 

“What does my dad have to do with anyth–” 

“ They’re longing for someone with strong ambition .” Mr. Blim sat her down in a chair, kicking her backpack to the side. “ Someone to hold their specific vision. ” 

Steph pushed herself up from the chair and grabbed her bag. 

“Someone to share with precise precision, their thoughts . . .” 

She looked on in horror as Mr. Blim blocked the door as he sang. 

“Cause I want you to want . . .” He marched to a spot behind his desk, giving Steph full access to the door. “ To want .” 

Steph lunged for the door and threw it open just as Mr. Blim asked, “So, what do you want, Steph.” 

“What the fuck?” She asked herself as she ran into the hallway and, as luck would have it, Grace Chastity was standing in the hallway, dressed in her gym clothes. “Grace!” She called out. 

Grace spun around, clutching her pink bible to her chest. “Steph? What’s going on?” 

“I don’t know how to explain it.” Steph grabbed Grace’s hand and led her into the nearest bathroom. “I got called to Mr. Blim’s office and–” 

“He started singing?” 

“Yes, how did you know?” 

“I heard him. A few of the other teachers were singing the same thing.” Grace looked up at Steph. “The gym teacher was singing a song like that. It freaked me out so I ran out here. I heard Mrs. Mulberry singing in her classroom.” 

Shit. “Max, Richie, and Ruth are still in the classrooms,” Steph said. “They were all in geometry when I was called down here. We have to go get them!” 

“No! We have to go, who knows who else is going to be singing!” Grace pulled Steph to the door. “This is wrong. Something is terribly wrong!” Grace and Steph ran down the hall and slipped through one of the doors to the parking lot. 

• • • 

Ruth, Richie, and Max ran out of the school, covering their ears to not hear the building of singing teachers. They knew something was super wrong when their teacher started to sing, and booked it when their teacher killed one of their classmates. 

“She killed Reese!” Ruth yelled as the three ran down the street. 

“Who?” Max called from in front of them. He was much faster than the nerds behind him. 

“The girl with the unibrow,” Richie said as he tried to catch his breath without slowing down. 

“Were you guys friends, or something?” 

“Not really. We studied with her sometimes.” 

They stopped in an alley to catch their breaths. Richie thought he would die right there, he could barely breathe. “Oh, my god. Holy shit.” 

Richie was about to say something else when they heard a horde of people singing down the street. Max pulled Richie to him and covered his mouth. “Shut the fuck up, nerd.” 

The three hid behind a few trash cans as they watched the horde of people–if you could call them that anymore–stalk down the street, singing perfectly in unison. 

“This is creepy as shit,” Max muttered. 

“Are they zombies?” Ruth whispered. 

Max’s heart dropped. “They better not be.” He was fucking terrified of anything supernatural. Ghosts, skeletons, zombies , you name it. “Not because I’m scared or anything,” he scoffed. “I’m not a little bitch .” 

Richie rolled his eyes. Max still had his hand over Richie’s mouth, which made him breathe through his nose, so it was easier to catch his breath and keep him from hyperventilating. 

As the horde passed the alley, Richie and Ruth picked out a boy wearing suspenders and a bowtie. He was dancing in the back of the group. 

“Pete!” Ruth called out. She ran out from the alley and into the street. 

Richie’s calls for Ruth were muffled by Max’s hand. Richie struggled in Max’s grip, eventually freeing himself right as Pete turned to face Ruth. Richie froze. 

“Pete, what happened?” Ruth pulled Pete away from the horde. 

Pete smiled down at her and handed her a coffee cup from Beanie’s. “ Get your cup of poisoned coffee,” he sang. He pulled Ruth to him, trapping her against his chest with his arm. “ Your toxic cup of Joey.” 

“Ruth!” Richie called out. 

Pete lifted the cup up to Ruth’s mouth. “ We’ll make a twisted cup of java mocha latte with a goop for you, Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack ” 

Max rushed forward and knocked the cup from Pete’s hands, its blue contents spilling out onto the pavement. He pulled Ruth from Pete. 

Pete looked up at Max, blue eyes shining through his glasses. “ Hey, Mr. Business. ” A sinister smile spread across Pete’s face. An inhuman smile that made Max’s skin crawl. 

Richie pulled Ruth farther away from Pete, staring back at him in horror. That wasn’t their friend. Not anymore. 

“ How do ya, how do ya, how do ya do?” 

The three shared a quick glance before booking it down the street. 

“ We’ll make double for you,” another person in the crowd sang. 

“ Hey, Mr. Business,” Pete sang. 

“ And we’ll bring it right up. ” 

Chapter Text

“Where the fuck are you guys?” Max’s voice came through Steph’s phone. 

“Language, Max,” Grace said. 

Steph ignored Grace. “We’re hiding in that one shed next to the football field. The one with all the flags and shit in it. Where are you guys?” 

“Downtown. In–uh . . .” 

“ Where downtown, Max.” 

Max mumbled something that Steph couldn’t make out. 

“Where?” 

“Inadumpster . . .” 

“What?” 

“In a dumpster,” Max spat out. 

“Why the fuck are you in the trash?” 

Another voice—Richie’s—spoke. “T-there was nowhere else. It was Ruth’s idea. Bu-but we found an empty dumpster.” 

“Okay, okay. Just send me your location, we’ll come to you.” 

In a few seconds, a location ping showed up on Steph's phone. “Oh, my god, they really are in an alley downtown.” 

• • • 

Max pinched his nose. “Jesus, it fucking sticks in here.” 

“You’re the one who got in the dumpster first,” Ruth said. 

“I’m gonna start smelling like the rest of you nerds.” 

Richie crossed his arms. “I have overactive sweat glands.” 

“And I’m allergic to deodorant. If I wear it, I break out in hives and–” 

“Gross.” 

“Don’t bully me.” 

The top of the dumpster opened, letting the light from the outside spill into it. Grace and Steph’s faces looked down at them. 

Grace helped Ruth out of the dumpster while Max hopped out. Richie struggled to pull himself out before Max grabbed his arms and hoisted him out. 

“Thanks,” Richie said as he held onto Max’s shoulders. 

“Whatever, nerd.” Max dropped him and Richie fell onto the ground. 

“I called my dad,” Steph said. “He’s sending Officer Corey and Bailey to come get us. They’ll bring us to the courthouse. We can hide in there.” 

Police sirens wailed in the distance, quickly getting closer until two cop cars pulled up to the five teens. 

A sense of relief washed over them as Officer Bailey and Officer Corey got out of their cars. 

“Ugh, thank god,” Steph called out as she walked up to Officer Bailey. “Thanks for coming, everyone’s singing.” 

“One of our teachers killed someone!” Ruth called out. 

“Pete’s one of the ones singing,” Richie said as he got up off the ground. 

Officer Bailey put his hand out in front of Steph’s face. “Ma’am, I need you to take a step back,” he sang. 

“Oh, fuck,” Max muttered. He unconsciously reached for Richie’s sweater sleeve. 

“You’re facing the law, not the clerk at The Gap . . .” 

Steph stared at Officer Bailey in shock. “Officer Bailey?” 

He took a step toward her. “Cause we’re cops. Yeah, we’re cops. ” 

Steph backed up, tripping over her own feet and falling backward. 

“You better shape on up.” 

Max ran to her and pulled her back. He got in between her and Bailey. 

Officer Corey swung Max around, separating him from the rest. 

“You better empty out all of them pockets.” 

“What?” He batted their hands away from him. 

“But don’t empty out all of them pockets.” 

Bailey shoved Max to the ground. “Yeah, we’re cops. Yeah, we’re cops. And we make sense.” 

Richie ran to help Max up. They were now both separated from the other three. 

“What the fuck is going on?” Max held onto Richie as they backed away from the cops, who were now focused on Ruth, Grace, and Steph. 

“Show me your hands. Show me those jazz hands.”  Grace held her arms up. “Get ‘em up, or you’ll end up in cuffs.” 

Ruth tried to back away from them, but her back collided with the brick wall of a building. 

“Show me those hands. Show me those jazz hands. Or I might be inclined to shoot you up.” 

Everyone’s eyes flickered to the cops’ guns in their holsters. 

“That might make this harder.” Max pointed at the guns. “They’ll shoot us.” 

“No shit, genius,” Richie muttered. 

The cops pulled Ruth and Grace to them, holding their arms out. 

“You go forty in a thirty-five.” 

“Hey, I don’t speed, thank you very much,” Grace protested. 

“Check your mirror, you’ll find hell has arrived.” 

“Hell?” 

“Cause we’re cops. Yeah, we’re cops. We’re up in your shit.”  They threw the girls to the ground. 

Ruth and Grace crawled back to Steph, who helped them up. 

The cops kept singing, getting in their way every time one of them tried to leave. Grace tried reaching for Bailey’s gun more than once. 

Max looked around for anything to help. His eyes landed on a sports bag in the bed of someone’s truck. He ran for it, hoping that there was anything in there to help him. It looked like a baseball bag, so he was praying for a bat. He hopped in the bed of the truck and unzipped the bag. 

The shine of a metal baseball bat peaked out from the dark bag. He grabbed it and ran back to the others, who were being chased in circles by the two cops. Officer Bailey had his gun pointed at Stephanie. 

Max closed his eyes and swung. 

With a loud clank, the bat hit Bailey in the head. He fell to the ground, allowing Grace to grab his gun. 

“Get back, you demons! In the name of God, our heavenly father, leave us alone!” She cried out, waving the gun at them. 

Officer Corey ran off at the sight of Grace pointing the gun at him. 

The teens looked down at Bailey’s unconscious body, then up to Max, who still held the metal baseball bat. 

“Holy shit, Max,” Steph shouted, “You killed him.” 

“You don’t know that!” Max held the bat tighter. It wasn’t a gun, but it sure worked for self-defense. 

Richie knelt next to Bailey’s body. “Guys . . .” He pointed to Bailey’s head. It was split open, exposing his brain–at least, they thought it was his brain. 

“Fuck,” Ruth muttered. “You think he’s dead now, Max?” 

Max looked down at the blue goo spilling from the officer’s head. When he got closer, he saw that his whole brain was blue. “Yeah, no. He’s . . . He’s super dead.” 

Richie grabbed a stick and poked at the blue shit on the ground. “I mean, I’m not a doctor or anything, but I don’t think human brains are blue.” 

“He’s not human?” Max stepped back. 

Richie stood up, throwing the stick to the side. He shivered as the blue goo on the stick splattered onto the brick wall behind him. “Not anymore.” 

“Is that what was wrong with Pete?” Ruth asked. “He got . . . infected? What even is that blue shit?” 

Max recalled looking into Pete’s eyes when he pulled Ruth from him. “What color are Pete’s eyes?” 

“Brown,” Richie said. “Why?” 

“When he looked at me, he had blue eyes.” Max held the bat close to him. “Like, super, blue eyes. It was fucking freaky.” 

“You and Richie have blue eyes,” Grace said. She took a few steps away from the both of them. She tried to hide the fact that she was pointing the gun at both of the boys. 

“No, not like ours,” Max said, “They were sorta . . . glowing. I don’t know.”

“Is this it, then?” Steph’s breathing quickened. “Is this the end of the world?” 

Grace gasped. “Like the apocalypse?” She held onto the gun. 

They weren’t ready to die. They were all too young. 

“I’m too young to die!” Ruth looked like she was on the verge of tears. “And I can’t die a virgin!” 

“We should go to my church!” Grace waved her hands, and by doing so, the gun around. 

“NO!” The four others yelled. 

Max stepped forward and plucked the gun from Grace’s hands before handing it over to Stephanie. “Sorry, Grace,” he said, “But I’d rather not die in your old church. Creepy old buildings freak me out.” He cringed at himself. Why would he admit that? And to the nerds of all people. They were all looking at him. “Oh, like you’d wanna die in some old building.” 

“I still think we should all go to the courthouse,” Steph said. 

“What if everyone there is one of them too?” Richie asked. “Where else do we go?” 

“We need to get out of downtown.” Max looked around him. “Too many people here. Maybe we can take a car. We can just find one that’s unlocked.” He looked at the cars around them. 

Ruth pointed to Officer Bailey’s cop car. The driver’s side door had been left open. “What about the cop car?” 

No one had to say anything more. In a second, all five of them ran for the car. Max took the driver’s seat while Steph called shotgun. Ruth, Ritchie, and Grace piled into the back. They had expected something to be coming through the radio but were met with nothing but silence. 

Now that they were safe in the car, they debated where to go from there. 

“I still think we should go to my church,” Grace said, looking slightly annoyed that her idea kept getting shot down. 

“Can we try to go to the courthouse?” Steph asked. “I want to see if my dad’s okay.” 

“We should get off the island,” Richie said. 

Max agreed. 

“We can’t.” Ruth pulled a news report up on her phone. “Clivesdale raised the bridge. There’s nowhere to go.” She let her phone fall onto her lap, defeated. 

“Fuck Clivesdale,” Richie muttered. 

“Fuck Clivesdale!” Max hit his hands on the steering wheel, repeatedly. The others thought for a moment that he was going to break it. “Goddamnit, okay. We’ll go to the courthouse. Get Steph’s dad . . .” He ran his hands through his hair. He couldn’t lose his cool now. “Go from there.” 

“Sounds like a plan, Jägerman,” Stephanie said. “Let's go.” 

Max sped through the streets of Hatchetfield. The cops were all fucked so he wasn’t worried about getting pulled over. Not like he ever cared before. The car rolled up to the courthouse and Steph jumped out. 

“You have the gun, right?” 

“Yes.” She held up the gun. “But what if my dad’s one of them, now? I don’t think I can kill him.” She shook her head at the thought. 

“I’ll come with you,” Grace said. “Just in case. You three, stay here. If there’s no one left in there, we’ll come back.” 

“And . . . if my dad is alive, we’ll come get you.” 

The two girls nodded and sprinted up the steps to the courthouse. Steph clutched the gun in her hand, while Grace held the straps of her tiny pink backpack. 

They threw the doors open. All the lights were off. Silence. 

“Dad?” Steph called out. 

Nothing. 

The two slowly stepped through the halls of the courthouse, their footsteps rang out in the silence. Grace prayed under her breath. 

Above one of the doors, a sign read “Mayor, Solomon Lauter.” 

Steph pushed open the door, letting the slow creeeeeaaak fill the silence. “Dad? Are you in here?” 

“Stephanie . . .” the soft, quiet voice of a woman echoed through the courthouse. 

“Dad, I’m really freaked out,” she said. “Everyone’s lost their minds!” She looked around for her dad as tears welled up in her eyes. 

She found him standing in the hall behind them, a blank expression on his face. 

“Dad!” She ran to him, dropping the gun and hugging him. “Dad, I’m so scared. The teachers, my classmates, the cops, everyone’s gone crazy.” She felt her father’s arms wrap around her. She melted into his embrace. “I’m so glad you’re okay.” She was crying. There was no hiding it. 

“Oh, Stephanie,” Mayor Lauter said as he held his daughter tighter. 

Out of the corner of Steph’s eye, she saw the red hair of Miss. Tessburger as she picked up the gun she had dropped and before she or Grace could react, Stephanie felt the sting of a bullet going through her chest. 

Grace screamed as Stephanie hit the floor, her blood quickly pooling under her. When she looked up from Steph’s body, Miss Tessburger was pointing the gun at her. 

“No, no no no no no.” She sprinted past the mayor and back through the courthouse to the entrance. Gunshots rang out behind her. “Please, God, don’t let me die. Not like this. Please save me, God,” she pleaded as she burst through the doors and ran down the steps. 

Richie opened the door of the car and she hopped in. 

“Where’s Steph?” Max asked. 

Grace screwed her eyes shut. “She’s dead. We need to go! Now!” Grace tried to catch her breath. As Max sped away, they all fell into silence, the only sound being Grace muttering prayers to herself. 

Chapter Text

The four teens sped down the streets in their stolen cop car, swerving to avoid the hordes of people eerily dancing in the streets. 

“So, let me get this straight,” Max said. He kept his eyes fixed on the road in an attempt to hide the fear in them from the three nerds in the car. He needed to look strong–no, he needed to be strong. He wasn’t about to let some freaky singing zombie things ruin his reputation. Not that there was any reason to, now. “When you and Steph were in the courthouse, you two found her dad . . . and then her dad’s assistant . . .  shot her?” 

Grace nodded. “Yeah. I ran out when she fell. I got shot at, too!” Her head rested against the seat in front of her as she held onto her bible. “God is punishing me,” she cried. “I’ve been a good girl.” She started to sob. She continued to mutter to herself about everything she must’ve done wrong. 

This was all starting to feel too real to Max. He didn’t know Peter like Ruth or Richie did. Max had only ever talked to him before taunting him or shoving him in a locker. He barely knew Pete, but he knew Steph. 

He had crashed at Steph’s house many times. They went to parties together. Last year, they had snuck out of their houses to hang out with Kyle, Jason, and Brenda in the Witchwood. Max didn’t really want to, but couldn’t stand the thought of being called a little bitch, so he followed Steph into the Witchwood without a word. 

And now, she was gone. Was this how Ruth and Richie felt about Pete? Dread pooled in his stomach. He felt tears starting to prick at his eyes, but he couldn’t let himself cry. Not now. Not ever. 

“Whe–where are we going?” Richie asked. “The world is ending!” He was panicking. “Where do we go?” 

“Max! Stop the car!” Grace yelled. 

Max slammed on the brakes and looked back at her. “WHAT?” He yelled back, and for the first time, he felt bad about it. 

Grace glared at him. “Let me out. My church is on this street. I want to go there.” She pointed to a brick church. The lights were on inside. “I’m getting out. You can either come with me, or you can leave.” She huffed. “And if I die in there, at least I’ll be going to Heaven. But I want you to come with me, Max!” 

Max shook his head. “I’m not going, Grace.” 

Grace looked at him with what he could only describe as hatred–or was it desperation?  She leaned closer to him from the backseat, shoving Richie out of the way. “Listen, Max.” She glared at him. “I’m giving you an opportunity to save yourself. Turn yourself to God, Max.” She grabbed him by the collar of his blue Hatchetfeild High t-shirt. “Then, you can come with me!” A wide grin spread across her face. “You-you can come with me! Yeah, if you come with me . . .” She had gotten uncomfortably close to Max’s face. “We can be saved. Together, Max!” 

“Grace?” Max muttered, trying to pull away from her. “You’re freaking me out.” He was so glad she didn’t have that gun anymore. 

“Don’t you get it?” She shook him. “If you come with me, we’ll be safe. We’ll be safe in the church!” 

Max glanced back at Ruth and Richie, who stared back at him in shock. 

Grace pushed open the car door and hopped out. She ran around to the driver’s door and pulled it open. “Max, if you just go inside,” she said as she tried to pull him from the driver’s seat, “We can cleanse you of your sins! You’ll be safe. If not on Earth, then up in Heaven!” 

“Aaaannnddd, she’s lost it,” Richie muttered. 

Grace managed to pull Max from the car, sending him tumbling to the ground. “Max, please! I can’t leave you to die here! I need you in Heaven with me! ‘ Let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death! ’” Grace pulled Max to his feet and started to drag him away from the car. “‘ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness!’ ” 

Max tried to pull away from her. “Grace, let me go!” 

“You can have eternal life! With me, Max! ‘ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life! ’” Grace continued to pull him in the direction of the church. “The world is ending, this is the end, Max! The only way forward is to turn to God, Max!” 

“I don’t want to, Grace!” 

“This is for your own good!” Grace had gotten Max to the steps of the church when Richie and Ruth held onto Max’s arms. 

The two nerds pulled Max away from Grace. She stumbled back, falling onto the steps. “You’re all sinners! You’re all going to burn in hell!” Her pink bible fell open, showing the book of Revelation, heavily annotated with a pink highlighter and a pink glitter pen. “Every one of you! Unless you let God into your hearts!” She cried out. “‘ He will wipe away every tear from your eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away!’ He will save us, Max!” She stood up, grabbing her bible. She kept it open to the book of Revelation. “ ‘Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready!’ ”

Max looked around. Dozens of people had gathered around them, staring up at Grace like church-goers looking on at their pastor. All eyes were fixed on the young girl who shouted from the steps of the church. Her hair had fallen out of her pink butterfly clips and tears ran down her face. 

Max felt a tug on his shirt. He spun around to see Richie. 

“We have to go, Max,” he said, “She’s a goner!” 

Max glanced back at Grace, watching as the people gathered around her crept toward her. One of them grabbed her arm and pulled her down from the steps. 

Max forced himself to look away. He bolted for the car, Richie and Ruth following close behind. 

“‘ Look, he is coming with the clouds,” and “every eye will see him, even those who pierced him”; and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.”So shall it be! Amen!’” 

Those were the last words either three of them heard from Grace before the car doors slammed shut and Grace disappeared beneath the flood of people. 

Chapter Text

Thump!  

“Max, I think you just ran over someone,” Richie looked behind the car at the person who was crumpled in a ball on the road. He watched as the person stood up and continued to dance slowly. “But, I–uh–I’m sure they’re okay.” 

The sky had turned from blue to gray. The clouds had a dark blue hue to them. Heavy fog fell over Hathcetfield. 

Through the fog,  lights from the football field hazily shone in the distance. They only got brighter as Hacthetfield High came into view. 

“Do you think the school is the best place?” Ruth asked. “What if there’s people there?” 

“We’re all more familiar with the school,” Richie said. He thought of all the places that the nerds would hide from the jocks, and Max. 

Richie and Ruth had spent their first year of high school avoiding Max at all costs, and now, they were willingly sitting in a car with him as he drove to the high school. 

The school loomed over the football field and the surrounding houses. 

Richie’s phone buzzed in his pocket. When he looked at it, he saw a text from Ted, Pete’s brother. 

The text was short, but it sent a chill down Richie’s spine. “Rich, please tell me Pete is with you. He won’t answer me. Please tell me he’s okay. I need him to be okay.” 

How was Richie supposed to answer that? He didn’t want to be the one to tell Ted that his baby brother was singing and dancing around with everyone else. 

Another text came through the phone. “Rich, please. Where is my brother? I need to know.” 

Richie sighed and typed his reply. “Ted, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what’s going on. Pete was singing and dancing earlier. He’s one of them. We don’t know what’s happening.” 

“So Pete’s dead.” 

Richie didn't know how to reply. He didn’t have to. 

One final text popped up on the screen. “God damnit.” 

Richie’s eyes welled up with tears. He had hope that Pete was okay, but seeing the words ‘Pete’ and ‘dead’ in the same text message hit him like a freight train. He couldn’t stop the tears that started to run down his face. 

“Richie?” Ruth tapped his shoulder. “Are you okay?” 

Richie held back a sob. “No, I’m not! Ted just texted me. He asked . . . he asked me where Pete was. He wanted to know that Pete was okay. I-I had to tell–tell him that Pete was . . . that Pete was . . .” His breath was shaky. “Gone.” 

Peter Spankoffski, the boy who had been Richie’s best friend since 3rd grade. His only friend until they met Ruth in middle school. Now, one of the two friends he ever had was gone, and there was nothing Richie could do about it. 

They pulled up to the football field. Empty cars still sat in the parking lot despite it being past 6 pm. The school sat across the football field, illuminated by the lights around the field. 

“This shit is fucking creepy,” Max mumbled. 

“Okay, so where are we going?” Ruth asked. 

“We find a room in there, barricade ourselves in . . .” Max wasn’t the biggest fan of the idea of being stuck with these nerds, but he didn’t really have any other choice. “And we wait for someone to help us. When this bullshit is all over.” Max grabbed the baseball bat that sat next to Richie. “Let’s go, bitches.” He threw open the car door and stepped out onto the street. 

Richie and Ruth climbed out of the car and followed Max onto the field. The three walked cautiously across the field, the turf crunching under their feet. 

“Hey–uh . . .” Max shook his head. 

“Yeah?” Ruth looked around for other people. 

“Never mind,” Max said. “I–uh–I forgot. I just . . .I just wanted to say that . . . I’m . . .” 

The three looked around them when they made it to the 50-yard line. They stood on a giant picture of a nighthawk. They saw the outlines of a few people walking on the bleachers. 

“Fuck.” Max adjusted his hold on the bat as two figures stepped onto the field. 

Jason and Kyle stumbled toward the three, followed by a group of cheerleaders and other football players. 

“Kyle? Jason?” Max stepped back, backing into Richie. 

Kyle smiled. “It is time,” he said. “To die!” He drew out the word, he was singing. 

“Oh, God fucking damnit!” Max looked around at the football players and cheerleaders that were surrounding them. 

“Sorry to interrupt, but we’ve got bones to pluck,” Kyle’s voice rang out across the football field. Max had never heard Kyle sing before. It was creepy. Way too creepy. “ The time for chaos is long past overdue.” Kyle never took his eyes off Max as he crept toward him. 

Max turned around when he heard Ruth cry out behind him. Stacy had grabbed her shoulders and pulled her back. “Death isn’t optional. In fact, it’s optimal.” She wore a wicked smile as she stared down at Ruth, who struggled against her. “Your time is up and now we go through you.”

Max pushed Stacy away from the nerd, watching as she stumbled back without missing a note. 

“We tried to convince you in soliloquy . . .”

Max looked around for Richie as he helped Ruth up from the ground. “You okay?” 

“But now we’ll kill you with more than harmony,” Brenda sang, inching closer to Max and Ruth. “Just die!” 

The rest of the football players and cheerleaders started to sing along as the circle got smaller and smaller around them. “Join us, and die. Join us, and die. Join us, and die.”  Their voices mixed as they sang in unison, like a horrific symphony that Max never asked to hear. “All you gotta do is.” 

Movement from the ground caught Max’s attention. Richie was crawling through the sea of legs that were stumbling around them. He was seemingly going unnoticed by everyone. 

  “Join us, and die. Join us, and die. Join us, and die.”  

Richie made it out of the circle. His eyes met Max’s as he looked back at them. “What do I do?” He mouthed. 

Max didn’t think. He never really did. He looked down at the bat in his hands and threw it over the crowd. Maybe even a nerd would know how to at least swing it at someone. 

The bat landed at Richie’s feet. He looked at Max, confused, but he picked it up. “What do you want me to do with this?” He yelled. 

All eyes were now on Richie. The chorus spun around to look at the nerd. “All you gotta do is!” 

Jason ran for Richie, going to a tackle. Richie hopped out of the way. “Here’s how it’s gonna go. We’re gonna kick your ass.” 

“And then we’re gonna fucking kick your ass!” 

Richie attempted to swing the bat at them, but he wasn’t holding it correctly, nor was he even close to hitting anyone with it. 

Ruth and Max ran from their classmates, who had made an opening in the circle when going after Richie. 

“Why’d you give him the bat?” Ruth asked. “He doesn’t play sports!” 

“Well, I thought it would help, Flemwad!” 

Richie had fallen to the ground. He crawled back, trying to distance himself from his pursuers. “Ruth, help!” 

“We’re gonna puke all that goo into your mouth where your food and all your cells will renew and be enhanced.” 

From the other side of the field, Max saw another one of his classmates, Brad Callahan, running to them. “Max!” He called out. As he got closer, Max could see blood running down his face. He limped a little as he ran. Max could see a large gash on his calf. “Max, what the fuck is going on?” 

“Not now, Brad!” Max looked back to Richie, who had gotten up and ran to the bleachers, bat in hand. 

“It’s a death-like process, that you’ve gotta see.” 

The teens sang out in perfect harmony, despite none of them being in choir or ever having that well in their lives. 

“Where’s Micro-Peter? Isn’t he normally with those dweebs?” Brad asked as he saw Ruth and Richie. 

Ruth glared at Brad. “The same thing that happened to them.” She pointed to their classmates. “What do you think, dumbass?” Max could see tears in her eyes. 

“Can it, Jail-Face! I asked Max.” 

“Now’s not the time, Callahan.” Max pushed him away and ran to the bleachers. 

“Your own body is your front-row seat to die!” 

Richie jumped down from the bleachers just before Kyle could grab him. He tumbled to the ground and the bat rolled away from him. 

Max ran to pick up the bat before grabbing Richie’s hand and running back onto the field. 

“Where do we go?” Richie gasped, trying to catch his breath. Didn’t he have asthma or something lame like that? “Fuck!” 

The chorus’ symphony rang out around them. “Join us, and die. Join us, and die. Join us, and die.” 

Max and Richie ran back to Ruth. 

“The school! Just . . .” Richie coughed. “Go to the school!” 

The football team and cheerleaders were now going after Brad, who was standing in the middle of the field doing nothing, just like he did during football practice. He did nothing but stare into the crowd of singing jocks and mean girls. 

“All you gotta do is . . .” 

Max and the nerds ran up to the school, leaving Brad to the mercy of their classmates. 

“Max!” 

He turned around as they made it to the end zone. This would probably be the last time Max ever stood there.  If this was really the end of the world, he would never get to be there when they won another game against Clivesdale. There were never going to be any more homecoming games. He would never get to live through his junior and senior year. Instead, the world had to end during his sophomore year. Max Jägerman wouldn’t even make it to his 16th birthday. 

Brad was surrounded by his teammates. They grabbed at his arms and danced around him. 

Max watched as the team pulled Brad to the ground, and when he got back up, he was singing along with the rest of them.

“Damnit!” He wasn’t going to let himself be next. He sprinted the rest of the way to the school with Ruth and Richie, two people he never would’ve imagined himself teaming up with. They were nerds. He didn’t team up with nerds. 

Ruth pulled open the doors to Hatchetfeild High and ran inside. 

Max and Richie followed her. The hallways were dark and quiet. A few lockers had been left hanging open and papers littered the hallways. 

“Maybe we can hide in the auditorium?” Ruth suggested. “The dressing rooms or the light booth, maybe.” 

“A place for musicals when the whole town has come down with the dancing plague, Ruth, really?” Richie held himself in a hug. 

“Well, what do you suggest?” 

Richie was silent for a moment. “We could uh . . . yeah, I’ve got nothing.” 

Max’s heart dropped to the floor when he heard the faint sound of someone singing somewhere in the school. 

“Does anyone else hear that?” Richie whispered. 

Ruth nodded. “It sounds like it’s down by the choir room.” 

Max tried to open the door to the biology classroom, but when he turned the knob, it was locked.

The three crept through the halls, listening for any singing. Richie and Max were checking every classroom for an unlocked door but never found one. 

As they were running out of classrooms to hide in, the singing slowly got louder. 

“Deb, you’re scaring me!” A voice called out from down the hall. 

Max and Ruth peeked around the corner. Two girls were banging on the choir room door, Deb and one of the girls from the smoke club. 

“That sounds like Alice,” Ruth whispered. 

“Who the fuck is Alice?” Max knew nearly everyone in the school. Well, everyone worth knowing. 

Ruth looked up at him. “Deb’s girlfriend. She lives in Clivesdale.” 

“Clivesdale? What’s she doing here?” 

“I don’t know.” 

“G-guys,” Richie mumbled. 

Max and Ruth glanced back at Richie, who was staring down the hallway. 

Trevor and Caitlyn were stumbling down the hall, softly singing the same tune as Deb and the smoke club girl. 

“Oh, now he’ll sing the right thing,” Ruth muttered and rolled her eyes. 

“Not the time, Ruth.” Richie backed up as Trevor and Caitlyn got closer. They were blocking the only other way down the hall. With Deb at one end, and them at the other, they were trapped. 

A scream from Alice snapped their attention to the choir room. Deb and the smoke club girl had broken down the door. Alice pleaded with her girlfriend, calling out for help as Deb disappeared inside the room. 

“Alice!” Ruth ran down the hall, ignoring Richie’s shouting for her to come back. 

Trevor and Caitlyn walked past Max and Richie and followed Deb into the choir room. 

“Deb, what are you doing?” Alice’s voice was shaky. 

Richie tried to run after Ruth, but Max held him back. “Ruth, get back here! It’s not safe!” 

“Alice get out of there!” Ruth yelled. 

Trevor and Caitlyn grabbed Ruth and dragged her further into the choir room, slamming the door behind them. 

“Ruth!” Richie broke free from Max and sprinted for the choir room. “Ruth, please!” He slammed his hands against the door. 

Ruth didn’t answer. Alice had also gone silent. 

“Oh my God, Ruth, please! Say something!” 

Max pulled Richie away from the door. He ignored Richie’s cries for his friend as he dragged the nerd down the hall. “Richie, she’s gone! We have to go!” 

“I can’t! I can’t leave her!” Richie was sobbing now. “I can’t lose her too, Max! I . . . I . . .” He tried to get away from Max, but Max was much stronger. “Goddamnit, Ruth! Why?” Richie continued to try to pull away from Max but wasn’t able to get out of Max’s hold. “We need– I need to do something! I can’t lose her! I’ve already lost Pete! She can’t die! She can't!” 

When the choir room was no longer in sight, Max was about to let go of Richie, but when he started to run back to the choir room, Max grabbed him again. 

“Jesus, Shit-Lips, do you really wanna die, too?” He wrapped his arms around Richie, trapping him as he dragged him down the hall. 

Richie didn’t respond, the only sounds coming from him being sobs and a few words that were so quiet that Max couldn’t make them out. 

Chapter Text

The door to the locker room slammed shut. Max wasted no time in barricading the metal door with the blue benches that littered the room. 

Richie slid down the lockers and pulled his knees to his chest. He held his head in his hands, still muttering something about Pete and Ruth. “They’re gone. I lost them. They can’t be gone. They can’t.” He rocked back and forth, shaking his head. “Ruth just had to go try and save Alice. She just had to. And Pete–Pete’s gone and I had to be the one to tell his brother he’s dead. My only two friends are gone. Dead. And I’m never getting them back. I . . . I . . .” 

Max felt a twinge of guilt in his heart. He knew Ruth was a goner the moment she ran to the choir room and he didn’t want Richie to be next. All their classmates were gone, infected with the same bullshit singing sickness that now plagued the town. Steph and Grace were gone. Now Ruth was too. For all Max knew, they were the only ones left. 

“What do we do?” Richie asked. “Everyone’s gone. What if we’re the only ones left? How can I go on knowing my only two friends are dead?” 

“Hey,” Max’s voice was low, almost a whisper. He knelt down next to Richie. “Don’t . . . don’t say that. Maybe there’s a way to bring them back. There has to be.” He sat down. “Someone will come to save us. This can’t be how this ends.” 

“What if no one comes? What if everyone just forgets about Hatchetfield? Leaves us all to die on this island?” Richie wiped the tears from his face. “What if we never make it out of here? What if we die in here?” 

Drops of water fell from a leaky sink faucet. 

Richie rested his head on the locker behind him, staring blankly at the ceiling. He watched the light flickering above him. “Richard Lipschitz, died in a locker room. Killed by his singing classmates.” He chuckled. “What a way to go. Will anyone even remember us? Will they remember Grace? Steph? Pete or Ruth? The football team? The cheerleaders?” Richie looked at Max. “What if the world just chooses to forget Hatchetfield and everyone in it?”

“They won't,” Max said. “We will make it out of here.” Max didn’t really believe that, but if it calmed Richie down, it was worth a shot. Watching the nerd cry was making him incredibly uncomfortable. Richie’s ramblings were also cementing the idea of dying at the hands of singing zombies into his mind. Max was terrified. “And if we don’t, people will remember us. Whatever is causing this, it can’t get rid of Hactchetfield that easy.” 

Somewhere in the school, a voice shouted. “Alice! Alice, sweety, where are you?” 

Richie shook his head. “She’s dead, man,” he mumbled. “And now you are too.” 

They heard the quiet conversation of two men. They couldn’t quite tell what exactly was being said, but Max swore he heard one of them say something about Grace Chastity being a nerdy prude. 

“You think Grace is happy now?” Richie asked, his voice quiet.

“What do you mean?” 

Richie straightened his legs and leaned back against the lockers. “She died at her church. Spouting the word of God to a sea of onlookers. I guess all that praying didn’t really help her, huh?” 

“Do y’think she ever prayed for any of us? Or did she only pray for herself?” No one would think about praying for Max Jägerman. Even he knew he was too far gone. 

Richie chuckled. “For you, maybe. No one would give a shit about me. Or Pete. Or Ruth.” 

They listened to the buzzing of the flickering lights overhead. 

“No one cares enough to pray for a bunch of nerds.” Richie crossed his arms. A sad smile spread across his face. 

Max nudged Richie’s arm. “If it makes you feel any better, I’m sure no one would pray for me either.” Max had been awful to everyone for longer than he could remember. He was taught from a very early age that hurting others takes all the pain away from being hurt yourself. He was strong and intimidating, so he used it to his advantage. Even at 15 years old, he was on his way to becoming the God of Hatchetfield High. Who knows what he could do when he was a senior, when everyone would be under his rule? He could control everyone. All of Hatchetfield High would be little chess pieces for him to control, and no one would be able to stop him. 

But now, that didn’t matter. The world was ending and there was nothing Max could do to stop it. He was powerless and everything Max had done to get power over his classmates had gone to waste. Now, he was sitting, trapped, in a locker room with a nerd that he had been picking on for years. A nerd who had now lost the only two friends he had. 

“Max?” 

“Yeah?”

“What were you going to say? At the football field, right before we got attacked.” Richie looked at him. “You were about to say something.” 

Max sighed. “I wanted to apologize. For everything.” Max avoided looking at Richie. Instead, he stared at the large whiteboard on the wall. The words ‘ FUCK CLIVESDALE’ were written in blue marker across it, along with ‘Class of 2019,’ and ‘GO NIGHTHAWKS.’ 

Richie silently nodded. 

“I thought that you guys were a bunch of useless nerds. You, Flemwad, and Micro—you, Ruth, and Peter were easy targets. I made your lives hell for no reason other than it was all I could do to make myself feel powerful. Maybe if I could control everyone, I could rule Hatchetfield High and no one could do anything about it.” Max messed with the laces of his shoes. “I thought all you guys were good for was cowering in fear, things to use to cheat on tests, and take my anger out on. Seeing how close you all were pissed me off. This morning, when Ruth ran into the crowd to get Spankoffski made me realize that I don’t have anyone who would be willing to do the same for me. No one would care if I was gone. No one would even pray for me.” 

“Why’d you stick with us this whole time? I know you and Steph were friends,” Richie said. “I thought you would leave me and Ruth for dead when she . . . died.” 

Max shook his head. “I wasn’t really friends with Steph. Sure, we hung out sometimes but we were never really close. Not like how you three were– are. I don’t know why I stayed with you. I was scared, I guess.” Max finally looked at Richie. “Spooky shit is, like, my biggest fear. Ghosts, skeletons, zombies. All that shit freaks me the fuck out. And the thought of becoming one scares the shit outta me.” 

“Drowning freaks me out. I guess that’s my biggest fear,” Richie said. “I never learned how to swim because of it. When I was–I don’t know–like, eleven a bunch of older kids pushed me off one of the docks at the beach. The water was deep enough that I couldn’t touch the bottom. I think they thought it would be funny. ‘ Hey, let's push the weird kid into the water.’ I don't know if they knew I couldn’t swim. I couldn’t keep my head above water. I was freaking out. I tried holding my breath but I couldn’t for long. I probably wasn’t under for that long, but when you can’t breathe and you’re about to die, it felt like an eternity.” 

“Jesus,” Max mumbled. 

“I think I passed out, but I remember being back on the beach. Pete’s brother, Ted, had been the only one to notice. He brought me back to shore. Pete called 911 and Ted made sure I wasn’t dead. I haven’t gotten close to a pool or a lake since.” 

“If we get out of this, I’ll teach you how to swim,” Max joked. 

Richie laughed. It was an actual laugh, not a sad chuckle or a small, quiet laugh. “Yeah, and I’ll take you to a haunted house.” 

“I think I’ve had enough of zombies. I think dealing with all this shit gives me the pass on any haunted houses.” 

“You did hit one right over the head with a bat.” 

Max smiled. “It was badass, wasn’t it?” 

Richie laughed. “Yeah, I guess it was.” 

A gunshot rang out, making the boys jump. 

“What the fuck was that?” Richie stared at the barricaded door. 

It wasn’t long before another gunshot sounded. They heard shouting on the other side of the school. 

“GET DOWN ON THE GROUND, WE’RE THE ARMY!” 

Two gunshots. 

“What the fuck? What the fuck?” Max jumped up and walked over to the door. 

“Don’t open it!” 

“I wasn’t going to, Shit-Li–Richie.” 

Many other gunshots went off. Richie moved to a corner away from the door with his hands over his ears. 

Max jumped away from the door when a small explosion somewhere rang out, shaking the walls slightly. “HOLY SHIT!” He backed up further. He took a seat next to Richie. 

Richie was shaking, rocking back and forth. His eyes were screwed shut and he still had his ears covered. “No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.” 

“Richie?” Max reached out for him, but Richie flinched. “Hey, it’s okay.” 

Richie’s breathing was rapid. Every breath he took was a struggle. 

“Rich, you’re gonna make yourself pass out, dude.” God, Max was bad at this. 

“We’re gonna die here!” Richie gasped. “Oh my God, we’re gonna die here!” Richie hit his head on his knees. He was going to hurt himself if he kept this up. 

Without thinking, Max wrapped his arms around Richie and pulled him into a hug. “Richie,” he whispered, “Richie, listen to me. It’s going to be okay.” He could feel Richie shaking. “Rich, it’s okay. It’s okay. You’re okay.” 

Richie’s breathing slowed. 

“See, it’s okay. We’re okay.” Max slowly let go of Richie. “Look. We’re fine.” 

Richie nodded as he scanned the room. “We’re fine,” he repeated. “We’re . . . okay.” 

The flickering lights above were still buzzing. The sink faucet was still dripping. They were still there. 

They were okay. 

Chapter Text

A few hours later, when the sweet silence settled over the halls of Hatchetfield High, Richie, and Max slowly creeped out of the locker room. Pools of blue blood seeped out of the bodies of their infected classmates. Against the lockers, Alice’s body lay still, a gunshot wound in her stomach. Deb was crumpled in a ball next to her, her red hair had been stained blue as her blood flowed out of her temples.

“So they’re . . . dead dead,” Richie whispered. 

“Super dead.” Max saw the limp body of a man in the doorway of the choir room. A bullet hole went right through his head. 

There was no singing. No music. Nothing but an eerie silence. 

Lockers had been blown open. The blue metal had been ripped from the hinges and scattered throughout the halls. The smell of smoke rose from burnt papers and backpacks. A cracked iPhone lay in the middle of the hall. 

They headed for the door at the end of the hall. As they passed the choir room, Max saw the still body of Ruth. Her headgear was bent and her curly hair was matted with blood. Her skull had been cracked open and Max could see the spot on the floor where her head probably hit the ground. 

Max hurried Richie past the choir room, hoping that Richie hadn’t seen his friend. 

When the doors were opened, the cold air from outside rushed to them. The night sky was devoid of stars. The fog took on a blue hue and danced around the street. 

“What time is it?” Mas asked. 

Richie shrugged. “I have no clue. My phone died hours ago.” 

Max looked around at the ruined town of Hatchetfield. Some of the lights were still on in the now-empty houses. The street lights shone down on the abandoned sidewalks. 

“So, what now?” Richie asked as they walked through the fog. “Are we just supposed to stay in Hatchetfield? How do we get off the island? Can we get off the island?” 

They made it to the small town square. They could hear faint singing in the distance.

Next to the fountain in the middle of the square, the two boys took a seat on a wooden bench. 

The wind whistled through the trees that grew around the square and the fountain bubbled in front of them. The blue lights of the destroyed Starlight Theater shone from down the street, glittering through the fog. The buzzing of a helicopter somewhere in the sky covered the sound of someone singing a few blocks down. 

Richie stared at the water that poured out of the fountain. He leaned onto Max and rested his head on Max’s shoulder. “Everyone’s gone,” he said. 

“I know.” Max looked around at their hometown. Once buzzing with life, a small town full of weird people who went about their mundane lives without a care in the world was now empty. Devoid of human life. Replaced with shells of people who danced and sang together in harmony. 

The buzzing sound of a helicopter rang out over Hatchetfield. 

Richie and Max looked for where the sound was coming from. 

“Do you think they’re here to get survivors?” Richie asked. 

Max stood up, scanning the dark sky. “God, I hope so.” 

The cracking beat of a snare drum sounded. Like the ones that the Hatchetfield High marching band would play during parades or halftime at football games. 

Down the street, Max could see a parade of people, dressed in military uniforms, all marching to the beat of the snare drum toward them.

The soldiers had moved from the street and were now marching on the grass of the square. 

“Maybe they’re here to help us?” Richie stood behind Max as they watched the parade of soldiers march up to them. 

All of their faces were obstructed by helmets. Their eyes were hidden behind dark goggles. They nearly blended into the darkness that fell over the town, only being illuminated by the flickering street lights. 

“Hello?” Max called out. “We’re human! We need help!” 

The snare drum kept rattling the same marching tune as the soldiers inched closer. 

None of the soldiers said anything until they were an arm’s length away from Max and Richie. 

Max waved his hand in front of one of their faces. “Sir? Ma’am? Whatever you are, we need help. For the love of God, please tell me you aren’t infected too.” 

“I don’t know what you’ve been told, but Americans should fit a mold.” The soldier in front of Max reached out for him. 

Max jumped back into Richie. “Fuck,” he muttered. “We’re so fucking dead.”

One of the soldiers pulled Richie backward. “There’s a war to be fought in this country against those who are far too bold.” 

“Let go of him!” Max tried to grab Richie from the soldier but was held back. 

“Two-party system, left and right. There’s only room for right and wrong. It’s me or you or you or me. The loud has become the strong. Yeah, we’re great again.” 

The chorus of soldiers sang out in harmony as Richie was dragged back to the fountain. 

“America’s great again.” 

The chorus continued to sing as Richie struggled against the soldier’s hold. “Max!” Richie’s legs hit the stone wall of the fountain. The realization of what was happening seemed to hit him when his face dropped and he looked back at Max, then at the water coming out from the fountain. 

The fountain’s clear water had become a glowing blue as Richie kept trying to back away from it. “Stop! Please!” Two soldiers grabbed his arms and shoved him into the fountain. “Max, run!” 

Max felt a pull on his arm as he tried to go after Richie. He turned to see the one holding him smiling at him. Their teeth were stained blue and drops of blue fell out of their mouth. 

“You can’t run.” 

“You can’t run . . .” 

“You can’t run . . .” 

Max threw a punch at the one holding him, knocking them back. He wrenched his arm out of their grip and stepped back, right into the grasp of two others. 

“Cause our borders are closed.” 

“Our borders are closed . . .” 

“ Our borders are closed . . .” 

He looked back at Richie, who was trying to climb out of the fountain. He was covered in the blue water. His hair was stuck to his forehead and blue streamed down his face. Just as he had one foot outside the fountain, a pair of hands pulled him back into the water. 

“You’re staring down the gun . . . ” 

Out of the corner of his eye, Max saw one of them pull out a gun and point it at him, but all he could look at was Richie. No matter how much he tried to save him, the soldiers were much stronger. 

“‘Cause you’re easily disposed . . .” 

Water splashed out of the fountain, staining the sidewalk around it blue as Richie struggled to keep his head above water. Every time he managed to bring himself up for air, he was quickly shoved back underwater. 

“The final solution . . .” 

Max saw Richie try to gasp for air just as his head went back underwater, no doubt taking in the blue liquid and not air. Max watched as Richie coughed up blue every time his head came back up. 

“It’s a chartered course at the whim of our own evolution! Singularity had through a pre-destined self-destruction.” 

Richie had said before that drowning feels like it takes an eternity, and now Max understood. Although he wasn’t the one drowning, watching it happen made time stop completely. He listened as the choir sang in perfect and haunting harmonies and watched as they drowned his classmate right in front of him, and there was nothing he could do about it. 

“So that we may rebuild and experience a new construction.” 

Richie thrashed around in the fountain, struggling against the infected soldiers. But his attempts at freeing himself became weaker and weaker. As Richie fought to keep his head above water, with each breath, more glowing blue liquid made its way into his lungs.

“Yeah, we’re great again.” 

The notes that were sung echoed around him as he watched Richie stop fighting and fall still. Max couldn’t feel the two soldiers holding him anymore as he prayed for Richie to get up and climb out of the fountain. But he never did. 

He almost didn’t notice when the sound of a gun firing rang out. An intense stinging pain in his shoulder caused him to stumble back as the soldiers continued to sing. His foot slipped on a piece of metal and he fell back onto some of the rubble of the destroyed picnic area covering. He didn’t know something could hurt more than the bullet in his shoulder until he looked down at the piece of wood sticking through his chest. 

Stars dotted his vision as he looked up into the starless night sky. 

The soldiers were still singing but he couldn’t make out what the words were over the ringing in his ears. He heard the faint chopping of the helicopter in the distance, just before he caught a glimpse of it falling out of the night sky, just like the meteor that crashed into the Starlight. 

As Max’s vision began to darken, he watched as the military marched off in the direction of the theater, leaving the two teenage boys alone to die in the Hatchetfield town square. One dead in the fountain and the other with a bullet in his shoulder and impaled by scraps of wood. 

They say when you die, everything turns to black. The blackout before a scene change. But as Max’s consciousness faded, all he saw was blue.