PMS Zombies

by Arielle Brix

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Alex's first day of high school goes terribly awry as all the girls in town develop an intense hatred of men and a voracious appetite for human flesh. His effeminate looks might save him from being eaten by the girls for a little while but will he be able to resist the virus feminizing his body by the hour?

Approximate content rating: PG-15 for violence, language, and suggestive content.

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Chapter 4: Meeting the Crew

“I think I heard something over here.”

My neck clicked as I quickly swiveled towards the boy’s voice. Beth tensed as well, hand tightly gripping my thigh. He didn’t sound like a cannibal but I didn’t trust anyone other than Beth right now.

The brief rest had given me enough energy to get back to my feet and I pulled her up alongside me. If there was blood on his lips I was going to take off running… though I wasn’t sure where to. There was only so far you could run on a roof before falling off of it.

A motley group appeared from around the corner. A preppy older boy led the pack, dirt scuffing his otherwise fashionable outfit. A buxom blonde cheerleader in uniform was close behind him. On the leader’s left was chubby boy wielding a broom and on his right a muscled jock, biceps bulging out of his shirt and covered in strange tattoos.

‘Swastikas. Effing swastikas.’ There was obviously no justice in who got eaten first by cannibals. Hopefully he was one of those neo-Nazis that focused more on Jews and banking conspiracies than lynching blacks or I could be in for a very bad time. I had to admit though, he did have more artistic talent than the average white supremacist in Weyton. Rather than giant swastikas and skulls he’d gotten a lot of tiny swastikas that together looked like an eagle, like some sort of racist pointillism.

“Dammit David, I thought you said there was only one roof entrance,” said the lead boy.

“I thought there was,” replied David, broom handle still pointed towards us like a spear. “I’m not a fucking architect.”

The cheerleader cut in before the leader could respond, voice so high it actually hurt my ears. “Stop arguing and lock the damned door!”

The Nazi complied. He didn’t quite kick us out of the way but it was a close thing. We scuttled quickly to the side as he stomped into place in front of the door. Beth started to softly hiss at his rudeness but my hand around her waist kept her from doing anything else. She was a very sweet girl but like every other high school girl I’d met she was a violent man-hater with a hair trigger when it came to insults. I was pretty sure she wouldn’t bite him but I was already coming to realize that there was a lot about the world I had yet to learn. It was best to keep her calm, just in case.

“Cover him,” said the leader, pushing David forward.

“What? Why me?”

“You’ve got the weapon.”

The younger boy looked at his broom like it betrayed him but stepped forward anyways after the cheerleader glared at him. His pudgy hands shook and I could see him sweating but he stood with the broom at the ready as the Nazi swung open the door. Thankfully there was no one on the other side and just a second later he’d turned the lock on the other side and swung it back closed.

The group of four visibly sagged with relief once the door was back in place. I had to ask though, “So, umm, what if there’s a third door?”

“There’s no way there’s a third door,” said David. “What kind of roof needs three entrances.”

Considering he was also the one that said there was only one entrance no one seemed particularly convinced by his logic. “We should search the rest of the roof,” said the cheerleader. The others silently agreed. We set off in double-file, Beth and I cautiously bringing up the rear. Their group was rather intimidating for various reasons but overall less frightening than staying separate and vulnerable.

I was sticky with sweat by the time we’d surveyed the rest of the roof. My jacket and sweatpants weren’t doing me any favors and the roof itself seemed to be putting out as much heat as the sun above. With it nearing noon I doubted I could even sit down without it burning me. There were a few spots of shade around the exhaust vents but the sounds of screams that echoed up through them largely ruined their appeal as places to rest.

“So…” I started, unnerved when everyone turned my way. Cannibal were bad enough, but public speaking on top of that had me shivering. “Umm, I—”

The cheerleader cut me off, her hefty chest thrust out as if she were filled with boundless inner confidence. Her harsh words disinclined me to stare though. “What is it girl, speak up!”

I flinched, realizing that yet another person had misidentified my sex. I’d hidden my oddities for months back in middle school with only minor difficulties, had I really changed so much over the summer? Or maybe it was a matter of assumptions. Back then everyone had known me and knew I was a guy, and thus overlooked my effeminate face and the growing swell of my hips that left me unable to wear boys’ cut pants anymore. Now though I was amongst strangers, strangers whose first impression of me was that I was a girl who forgot to wear a bra. No matter how I looked at my situation it was bad.

I pinched my thigh to try and refocus myself on what was important. Survival beat out having a few more people think I was a girl. It wasn’t like I could correct her either, not with Beth around. Having her find out I was a guy right after practically cuddling with her didn’t seem like it would be good for my health.

I took a deep breath and avoided looking at their eyes. This left me looking at the cheerleader’s bust again but some things simply couldn’t be helped. “Umm, how do we get down? You’ve, uh, locked all the doors.”

They seemed confused at the question, Beth even cocking her head again like a curious cat. The leader was the one to reply. “We don’t need to. We just need to stay up here safe and sound until the army arrives.”

That sounded reassuring, and I could tell the others agreed with the idea, but I was less convinced. While walking the roof I’d picked up the smell of smoke numerous times and it was only growing more prevalent. Rising pillars of smoke could be seen across the town, slowly stretching towards the sky. Fires weren’t unheard of in a large town like Weyton but this seemed like a far greater than normal number, and combined with numerous arrests I’d seen this morning I suspected that the cannibal problem stretched across the town. And if that was the case, well, there was no guarantee that the high school would get evacuated any time soon. Maybe not at all, if the cases stretched outside Weyton as well.

I hummed softly for a moment until I worked up my resolve to speak again. Interaction was so much easier when it was through computers. “Yes, but what if they don’t come for days? We don’t have any food or water and it’s really hot up here.” Clothing wise they had me a bit beat when it came to heat but there was still the sun to deal with. All of them were fair-skinned enough that they’d be at risk of sunburn even in the shade. Not that I was exactly immune myself, due to my Swedish father I was more mocha-skinned than dark black like my mother.

There were frowns as they took in my words and what it might mean if no one came for us today or even the day afterward. “We do have a small amount of water,” the senior boy said slowly, seemingly of mixed minds about telling us at all. He went and retrieved a disposable water bottle from where it was hidden in the shade. “You might as well have a sip.”

I had an awkward feeling that he was sharing out of chivalry towards someone he thought was a girl but I wasn’t quite prideful enough to refuse the offering. I was already feeling thirsty and that was likely going to get worse before it got better. “Thanks.”

I’d barely lifted my hand from my side before the cheerleader stopped the boy in his tracks. “Don’t let them touch it! What if they’re infected?”

All three boys looked at us more closely. It felt eery and worrisome despite David being the only one that looked like he was trying to guess the size of my bust. “We’re not infected,” I said firmly.

I waited for Beth to back me up but all I heard was a low rumbling growl. I glanced swiftly in her direction, noting with dismay that her lips were curling into a teeth-baring snarl. Personally I knew it was just her quirks acting up but under the circumstances they might be misinterpreted as something more dire. A soft kick to her leg thankfully got her attention.

“Right,” she said. “We’re not infected. Besides, how do we know that you’re not the infected ones.”

“We’re not the ones covered in blood,” the cheerleader replied coldly. And unfortunately she had a point. The blood spray on my jacket was bad enough but the various drips and red stars across Beth’s cheeks and mouth had her looking disturbing similar to the cannibals downstairs.

‘She isn’t infected, is she?’ For a moment downstairs it’d seemed like she was on the verge of joining the posse of girls chowing down on that boy’s flesh but she kicked back into gear once we started running quickly enough. No, it couldn’t have been cannibalistic hunger back then; shock was far more likely like I myself had experienced. She was still talking, still a normal albeit quirky and fiercely feminist girl. She wasn’t one of them. That said, I felt it would be wise to get off the subject.

“How do you know it’s an infection?” I asked. “Maybe it’s just the heat. Crime always goes up when it’s hot out.”

Condescension was palpable in the air after my suggestion. Their leader was the one to put it into words. “People don’t start biting ears off just because it’s hot out.”

Yeah, I had a feeling he was probably right about that.

“It’s obvious what’s happening here,” said David. “They’re zombies. They’re fucking zombies. The zombie apocalypse has finally arrived.”

It was a ridiculous assertion, made all the more off-putting by his near glee about it, but no one was quite confident enough to refute his claim. Personally I thought that something like super-rabies was far more likely than actual undead corpses but felt it would be counterproductive to say so since that would bring up the idea of us being infected again.

There was a glint in David’s eyes that disturbed me as he looked over the pair of us. “We should check them for bites. That’s how this sort of thing is always spread.”

I was about to blurt out that neither of us were bitten but the words caught in my throat. Technically Beth bit my neck just a couple of hours prior. ‘But that doesn’t mean anything.’ She was fine, I was fine, my neck didn’t even hurt so she must not have even bitten me as hard as I thought she did. It wasn’t like in the movies with bloody bites that didn’t heal, black veins creeping up the arm as fever took them until they finally died and turned. But then again, the ‘zombie’ cannibals downstairs hadn’t been anything like in the movies either. They hadn’t fallen down dead or shambled about in a daze; one moment they’d just been normal albeit angry girls and the next they’d been homicidal and ravenous.

“He’s right,” said the cheerleader. “She could be hiding anything under that jacket.”

‘Et tu?’ I wasn’t actually a girl but I felt like some sisterly support would have been nice. The idea of me removing clothes had David and, more surreptitiously, the preppy older boy staring at my mostly-hidden curves. ‘Pervy bastards, taking advantage of a situation like this to…’ Even in my head the insult sounded distinctly hypocritical. It’d only been twenty minutes since I contemplated asking Beth to take my virginity before we both died.

“Fine,” I said at last. I drew out the unzipping process as long as I could but eventually there was nothing left but to shuffle off the jacket. The situation underneath was even worse than I feared, no alteration of my posture doing much to hide what were very obviously a pair of prominent breasts. The shirt was one I’d bought a while ago to be extra baggy but while that was still true around my waist and shoulders it was considerably less the case around my chest. Sweat made the tightness even worse, causing fabric to cling where I really wished it wouldn’t, showing off my curves even more prominently.

I tried to cover my embarrassment with anger. “See? No bites.” I did a quick twist and then put my jacket back on as quickly as possible. Hopefully my neck was as healed as I thought it was but I could hardly think about that thanks to the heat in my cheeks. It was terrifyingly obvious that all of them had noticed my lack of bra just as Beth had, and they’d also seen indisputable proof that I wasn’t a normal boy. I could claim that I played football, liked girls, and didn’t own any dresses, and all they’d think was that I was a lesbian. My high school debut wasn’t going at all like I’d hoped.

David said, “Her legs could still be—”

“I’m not taking my pants off.”

Before any argument could start their leader took charge. “Fine. But there’s still a lot we don’t know. There’s no guarantee that bites cause this. It could be like a flu, or something in the water. The best idea is to stay alert and limit contact with each other. Any one of us could be infected.”

It seemed like sound enough advice but I made no move to let go of Beth’s hand. At times it felt like her presence at my side was the only thing keeping me upright through all of this madness.

“Umm, everyone might not be at risk.” Everyone’s attention on me had me wanting to squirm and it took a moment to realize that I was the one that spoke.

“What do you mean by that?” asked the cheerleader.

“Uh, well.” I was hesitant to voice my theory. It was just a guess thus far and it would be quite strange if it was true. “I’m not sure yet, but I think if we watch the parking lot you might see what I mean.” They were obviously curious but chose to hold their questions in favor of slowly setting off towards the edge of the roof, the heat making even conversation difficult.

I straightened to my full (though still short) height as we walked, my back thankful for the reprieve. There was little reason to slouch when everyone here already knew I had boobs, and the embarrassment of letting my bumps show like this paled in comparison to when I’d had to take off my jacket.

“What are your names by the way?” I asked, words springing from me before I knew it. “Might as well get to know each other since we’re probably going to be here for a while.” Being so forward was quite unlike me but coming down off the adrenaline, fear, and shame of recent events seemed to have made me temporarily resistant to my fear of socializing. “I’m… Alex, and this is Beth.” I hesitated to give my name before deciding it didn’t matter. With the way the town was burning it would be a long time before classes started again, and I could worry about coming up with a nickname to distance myself from the ‘female’ Alex when I reached that hurdle.

Their leader seemed surprised by the trivial nature of the question but soon took it in stride. “I’m Eric. That’s—”

“Sophie,” said the cheerleader. “Broom ninja there is David.”

“And, uh, him?” I wondered why I was even bothering but I was curious about the Nazi for the sake of completeness if nothing else.

“The ganger? He hasn’t said a word since he got here,” said Sophie with a sneer.

He didn’t seem particularly happy with her tone but didn’t say anything. ‘A mute Nazi? That’s weird.’ Not the worst thing in the world though. A zombie apocalypse was hard enough without having to listen to slurs every five minutes.

‘Wait, wasn’t there a gang nearby that had an oath of silence?’ No, there definitely was. It was an odd enough ritual to have hit the regional news. All new members had to take an oath of silence for a month in order to join. A test of spirit for their ability to not become a rat if they got taken in by the cops, if I recalled correctly. I wasn’t sure if his commitment to carrying out the pledge while the town was burning showed fortitude of will in his dedication to white nationalism or just profound stupidity. Probably both.

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End of Chapter 4

Complete novel available at https://Lycelia.com/s/egj?author=Arielle%20Brix or Amazon. You can also find more of my works at ArielleBrix.com

Whew. Some formatting actually worked for once. Still missing the line breaks and it took more effort than I would like, but it's good progress.