PMS Zombies by Arielle Brix
Cross-posted from Lycelia
Full novel available at Amazon

Chapter 3: Holding Hands
Despite hearing about the potential side effect I very much wanted another. Sure it was a girly drink, but it tasted so good that I was willing to put aside my machismo for a little while longer. “Uh, one more might be nice.” I tried not to sound too eager but I didn’t feel like I succeeded. With the sweet beverage coating my throat my voice sounded even softer and more emasculatingly girly than usual.
The bell rang before she could get any more money out. “Ah, too late. You should probably head off to class straight away, don’t want to run into another wrong classroom by mistake.”
“Right,” I replied. “I guess I’ll be going then.” That was what I said, but I lingered, looking dolefully at the vending machine. I didn’t have enough money to toss away two dollars on a diet drink for girls but my fingers inched towards my pocket anyways. A drink that sweet had to be full of calories, one or two more and I could have them replace my lunch.
‘Damn. I forgot my wallet.’ I’d been so busy trying to catch the bus that I’d not only missed out on breakfast but forgotten my lunch money as well. Getting through the rest of the day would be a struggle. Even after gulping down the Strawberry Buster my stomach was starting to show it’s discontent, lowly rumbling for more food. Maybe I could mooch some food off of — no, I couldn’t call myself a man if I begged for food from my crush on the very day I met her.
“Alo? Alex?” The snap of her fingers brought my head up.
“Yes! Right, umm, which way is…” I had to check my schedule to remember but soon wished I hadn’t. “the gym?” The word alone filled me with dread. It had been years since I could compete with other boys in terms of strength and height but that much was bearable — changing with large, unmistakable mounds on my chest in front of other boys was not. I had a note from my mother that would hopefully allow me to do gym activities in my normal figure-concealing clothes but a doctor’s note would have been better. Unfortunately she had yet to get far enough ahead of credit card bills to get me an appointment.
“Gym, eh? Need to hit your locker for clothes first?”
“No, I figured I’d just head straight there?” I replied, voice tipping upwards in a question at the end.
“Okay. I suppose they might let you get away with that on the first day.” She looked me up and down, mouth opening only to mercifully close a second later on her question. If she started asking I was ashamed of having an hourglass figure that practically every actual girl strived for it would be hard to answer without telling her the truth.
Her hand met mine, fingers interlocking with an ease that would be impossible if she knew I was a boy. She smiled brightly, only her sunglasses marring her angelic face. “I might as well lead you then, the gym’s right on my way.”
I followed alongside her, our hips occasionally bumping as we made out way through the crowds. I tried to keep my heart calm to keep my hands from sweating but it was a difficult proposition with such a beautiful older girl at my side. Not falling for her was impossible. How she’d react when I finally asked her out as a guy was a worrisome mystery thanks to how she seemed to hate men but so long as I held her hand I felt blessedly optimistic.
As we turned the corner the crowd grew even thicker, claustrophobia choking off my euphoria. Progress slowed to a halt as traffic in general stopped. There had to be some sort of commotion up ahead but I was too short to see further than a couple feet through the crowd. There were raised voices up ahead, and the usual high voices of girls shouting anti-man insults. At this point they were practically background noise, I couldn’t imagine why few slurs about men being pigs and other more colorful insults were enough to stop everyone in their tracks.
“Oye! Stop being such a bitch, will ya?”
At the ‘B’ word I felt the bones in my hand creak as Beth tightened her grip and pulled me forward. Two quick punches to their kidneys and she had us past a pair of wincing senior boys, close enough now to see the action. On one side was a young red-faced cheerleader and her posse, all wearing sunglasses. On the other side was what seemed like a fairly ordinary young man. His clothes were rather punkish and his carefully trimmed beard made him look like a bit of a ponce (though that might’ve just been my jealousy for his ability to grow a beard speaking) but on first impression he didn’t seem like a bad guy. What was this all about, even? A lover’s spat seemed to be the best guess. Not that it mattered to me, but he did seem somewhat handsome; perhaps handsome enough to have attracted the spitfire cheerleader.
The cheerleader’s dark glasses fell off her nose, tumbling down to the floor. Under normal circumstances I would have watched them fall, but instead I was caught by her eyes. They weren’t just a little bloodshot, they were full-on red. Even her iris seemed to be affected, what might’ve once been blue or green now a dark crimson. In jest I’d thought she looked murderous before, but now she genuinely looked like a savage beast. Female puberty was far more terrifying than they’d ever told us in middle school. I’d never realized just how ignorant I was on the subject before today.
I couldn’t help but feel sympathy for the guy as he took a worried step backwards. He shouldn’t have said the ‘B’ word but I could sort of see where he was coming from. Not that I was going to step up and say something in his defense of course, I wasn’t that brave. Judging by the way Beth was trying to break my hand this would be the worst of all times to out myself as a man sympathizer, let alone give a hint that I was actually a guy. Strangely it seemed that my unwanted curves would actually work in my favor for once, protecting me from the upswell of feminist rage.
“Ack!” The unfortunate target of the girls’ hate reeled back as the cheerleader suddenly pounced on him. She was small enough in comparison to him that he didn’t fall over but he did stumble back until his back thumped against the lockers. “She’s fucking biting me! Get this bi—”
His curse turned into a shriek as she bit down harder. She must have hit an artery because blood spurted out, the misting spray covering everyone nearby. Some got in my eyes but I hardly even blinked, unable to look away from the dreadful scene.
The cheerleader’s friends didn’t seem to share my shock and horror at the blood. Instead the crimson on their lips seemed to spark something in them. They snarled like beasts before their mouths opened, teeth bared like mountain lions. They moved a second later, all of the girl’s friends and two other girls from the crowd as well. They jumped the already injured boy, sharp teeth sinking into legs, arms, and neck. He slumped to the floor from their combined weight but they didn’t let up, continuing to bite him while he was down. Not only bite, either, but gnaw and tear and —
‘That’s a lot of blood.’ I wondered if I was in shock, if that’s why I could witness the worst thing I’d seen in my life but still feel so little. I felt all hollowed out, like I was a statue watching the world. People were screaming and shouting and some were even running away but it all seemed distant and gray.
I continued to watch the girls take apart the boy, horrified but too shocked to look away. ‘There’s no way this is normal.’ I’d rationalized a lot of what I’d seen today. The mood swings, the arrests, the rampant man-hating; that much could all be explained away. But this? There was no way it was part of growing up, some secret part of high school life I just hadn’t come into contact with before. What the girls were doing was wrong, and thoroughly dangerous.
I shivered despite the heat as the world came back into vivid focus. Everything was happening so fast that I was nearly overwhelmed all over again but instead I took a copper-scented breath and steadied myself. “Beth we need to get out of here!”
I wasn’t sure she heard me over the clamor. Her eyes were still locked on the grisly scene, teeth slightly bared. For a moment I couldn’t help but think that my blood-spattered angel looked like a feral beast, one step removed from the savage girls biting the boy to death. It was almost enough to make me leave her behind and run off alone like a coward but then the nascent love in my heart for the girl got me back on the path of a true man.
Yelling wasn’t working so I squeezed her hand instead to draw her attention. That was apparently still too subtle so I gave up on being well-mannered and just took off running, dragging her behind me. I was a bit shorter and lighter than her but I had enough momentum to get her moving. She stumbled a bit at first but then instinct took over and she was running just a step behind me.
I reeled as someone’s elbow caught me on the cheek hard enough to bruise. I heard Beth hiss at the offender for me but an apology wasn’t forthcoming; in fact by the time I lifted my head back up he was ten meters away and running like Hell was right behind him. In truth though it looked like it was in front of him as well.
“Fu….” I couldn’t even swear, rendered speechless by the chaos. It seemed that the sudden outbreak of cannibalism wasn’t an isolated incident. Another boy up ahead was gurgling blood as a plump brunette gave him an everlasting hickey, and the other guys that hadn’t already gotten out of the halls didn’t look much better. One skinny boy in glasses was fending off a cute redhead with his textbook but even repeated whacks weren’t doing much to keep her down. Meanwhile a muscled jock was swift-stepping his way to freedom but with a girl on each leg gnawing on his ankles like terriers I didn’t think he’d get very far.
‘At least I don’t have to go to gym now.’ The stupid thought rolled through my head as I tried to think of what to do. Crazy red eyes or not, smacking girls with textbooks didn’t seem like a very wholesome thing to do but under the circumstances I was tempted to go help the freshman fend off the redhead. After all, nerds had to stick together.
‘Or not.’ The girl must’ve had enough of being smacked in the head so instead of trying to bite him again she swung her hand around his guard. Her fingernails ripped through his throat with disturbing ease. The spray of blood through the air was hypnotically beautiful, for all that it was horrifying.
‘Jesus. Fracking hell.’ Seeing him die so quickly and easily scared away any urge I had to be a hero and save the day. In times like these it was every man for himself. Well, except for Beth of course. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I just left her behind to fend for herself. No, somehow or another I had to figure out a way to stay safe and get both of us as far away from this mess as possible. I’d leave actually fixing the situation to the army.
‘Think think think.’ Cannibals ahead of us, cannibals behind. If this were a video game I’d recommend a spell of invisibility or perhaps a high number of fireballs but without those options I was at a loss. I still had hope of figuring something out though, thanks to Beth. Unlike the way she’d flustered me before, this time the heat of her body pressed against my side was comforting. She was a soft and supple rock I could ground myself against to preserve my sanity.
Actually on second thought she was still pretty distracting, especially the way my boob pressed against her larger one. Thanks to my jacket and her bra there were plenty of layers between us but it was still an intriguing and novel sensation, for all that it wasn’t something a guy should experience. I knew it was absurd to be thinking about such things when there was such an unusually high chance of being eaten by cannibals but with her so close to me it was impossible to stop. ‘Isn’t this the point in apocalypse movies where the guy says he doesn’t want to die a virgin and sometimes the girl agrees?’
I wasn’t sure what would have killed me first, cannibals or the shame of asking for end-of-the-world sex with a girl I’d just barely met, but Beth thankfully saved me from both ignominious ends by way of shouting into my ear. “This way! Hurry!”
I followed her lead to a nearby classroom. She tried opening the door but it didn’t budge, locked from the inside. A teary-eyed girl was visible through the small window but she looked far too terrified to let us in, Beth’s frantic pounding only scaring further. Instead of offering us safe haven she seemed busy piling everything she could find against against the door.
I wondered if we should make a try for the windows. We were on the second floor but it wasn’t that far to the ground. Twelve feet maybe? That sounded doable. Then again, even something as minor as a sprained ankle would make it all that much easier for the rabid girls to run us down.
Beth growled and left the door behind. We’d delinked hands when she was trying the door but I stayed close to her as she slipped into a small stairwell I hadn’t known existed. There was warning tape up and it looked like they were doing some sort of work on the drywall but this was hardly the time to worry about dust inhalation if it meant getting out alive.
“Shit,” cursed Beth, halting two steps down. The reason why became apparent as soon as I focused beyond the pounding of my heart in my ears. The doors muffled it a bit but the steady outbreak of screams was even more frequent now because they were coming from both above and below us. Whatever was happening, it wasn’t at all restricted to the second floor. I wasn’t sure I’d truly even thought that it was, but I had hoped.
I wanted to cling to Beth again but gripped the railing instead. My whole body was shaking, fear mixing with adrenaline as my legs tried to decide whether to take off running or just collapse. Heroes in the movies always made this sort of thing look so easy but only the desire not to embarrass myself in front of a girl was keeping me from completely breaking down.
I swallowed, throat feeling dry as a bone. “Um, w-what’s above us?” I asked haltingly.
“Above?” Her head cocked. “Just the — the roof!” She took off up the stairs and I followed, my legs burning as I struggled to keep pace with her. She slammed into the door, metal creaking as it opened to reveal a brilliant blue sky. It was so bright that my eyes instantly watered and I had to squint but I kept running until I was on the other side of the door, slamming the heavy metal slab shut behind me with Beth’s help. We slumped to the ground next to each other, our backs against the door.
For a while we just focused on breathing. When it finally felt like the world wasn’t spinning anymore I tried to cover up the distant sound of screaming by talking. “It’s bright out here.”
“Very sunny,” she replied.
I knew we should be working out what was going on and why the ‘B’ word and a little blood in the air seemed to turn girls into raging cannibals but I just couldn’t get over how funny our conversation was. One floor down people were fighting for their lives and here we were talking about the weather.
A giggle bubbled up from inside me and once I started I couldn’t seem to stop. It was inappropriate to laugh in a situation like this and giggling was a girly habit I’d been trying to break in recent years but in a strange way it was making me feel a bit better. Beth joined in a second later, making the activity at least a little less awkward and embarrassing.
Giggling was a surprisingly exhausting activity and not too long later we both came to a halt, half-hugging as we squeezed tighter next to one another. Such a strange day. I hadn’t even shaken hands with another human being in months and now I was practically cuddling with a pretty girl, and one a couple years older than me to boot. If the school wasn’t so busy becoming a charnel house I might’ve gladly classified this as the best day of my life.

***
Oof, uploading rtf wasn't the magic bullet I hoped as far as formatting goes. Ended up showing a bunch of gobbledegook code so I went with copy-paste again. Anyways, planned on publishing this chap here a couple days ago but my laptop died, permanently. I was able to retrieve all my files though, so it could have been worse. Working off an old 11 inch chromebook atm. Screen isn't so hot, but the space key works better than my old laptop so that's a welcome change for writing.