SATURDAY JULY 9TH, 2011
(School Bus)

8:05 AM
Had another one of those pretty surreal dreams.
We were in a house. Typical little small house in England somewhere. It was my house; Donnie was a friend who was coming over for the day.
She was standing with me at first, occasionally speaking, but as the conversation went on, she’d be more and more quiet. By the end of the conversation, she was still there, but.. she was standing so far away that she went through the wall. It’s like noclip but I could still see her.
I dunno. Then church bells rang. Then Legsteps marched down the street outside, turning the church bells into a dubstep remix of Metallica’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” Then there was a car chase and Batman, but that all doesn’t matter; that was just typical dream fare!
Anyway, I’m somewhere now. It feels familiar. Getting up. I’m in a bed.

8:09 AM
This is a house, a fancy house covered in much dust. It feels really fucking familiar, though.

8:10 AM
I hear running water.
Fuck, I hear a shower! Upstairs!

8:11 AM
I knocked on the door. Donnie replied, says she woke up half an hour ago and decided to see what works.

8:35 AM
I showered too. This was our first time getting clean in a really long time, wasn’t it? Feels nice.

8:40 AM
Hey, this house has a basement.

8:41 AM
Oh my god. I know this place now.
We’re in Bones’ house.
Derek Taylor, my best friend from back when I had life in Georgia. That feels like it was decades ago now. It’s been almost a year.
I met Derek in Band Camp as a rising 9th grader. We were prepping for marching band. He was wearing a brown fedora, and that’s what got us talking for the first time, we were the hat boys. We spent our 9th grade year hanging out every school morning, and every Friday football game we’d talk and laugh about everything we could think of. Hell, for the first half of the school year, I’d hang out with Derek at our friend Josh’s house. There, I introduced Derek to a little game called Rock Band. I watched him speed through the difficulties until he was a decent Expert bassist.
Around the last month of school that year, I found out my family was moving back to England. It was my home country, but I was finally in various established circles of friends, for the first time in my life I could say I really had friends, and that’s all I wanted. That’s all I’d been trying to make all my life. But we had to move, and I was gonna lose all that.
But I still had a couple months, so that summer, I hung out with a lot of friends as much as I could. I wound up hanging out with Derek the most.
We did so much. We played so much Rock Band, and then there was the time Paul Botsford took us to downtown Atlanta, and we listened to Octavarium in his car. And that homeless person said Derek and I looked like the Blues Brothers.
Come to think of it, I’m not entirely sure why I call him “Bones.” I think it was his nickname during Band Camp, but as the school year actually started, people just started calling him by his initials. I was one of the few people who stuck to “Bones.”
But the dude was always thinner than me. I was taller, but he was thinner. That might be why he was called it. I dunno!
You gotta admit, though. “Bones” is a more badass name than “Derek.”
…hey, his Xbox is still here.
No guitar controllers, though. No Rock Band. No nothing.
What, did the zombies suddenly decide to take his good games?

8:53 AM
Donnie’s in the kitchen, looking through the cupboards for supplies.
There’s some canned goods, but not much has lasted the month and a half of apocalypse.

8:54 AM
..is that what I think it is? :DDDD
Yes. Oh my god yes.
And are these its
YES
We’ve hit the jackpot.
Derek’s parents left a car and keys in the garage.

8:58 AM
We do have one little problem. I haven’t been in this area in almost a year, and I never exactly learned the layout of Derek’s neighbourhoods and surrounding areas.
Oh well! When has that ever stopped me?

9:00 AM
On the road again! We're a long way away from New York, but considering how deep we went into the rabbit hole, that's not unheard of.

9:18 AM
I know this area now. This is the Sandy Springs that I grew up with.
In fact, my old high school should be somewhere over here.

9:25 AM
Oh my god.
The school is covered in a fresh paint of blood, and anything that’s not covered in that already had dry blood on it. And that’s just the outside.
There’s graffiti up the cornholio out here.
“SOUF SPRANG IS DEAD”
“THE FOOTBALL TEAM WILL NEVER WIN A GAME NOW”
“IT NEVER EVEN HAD A CHANCE.”
“THE BAND’S BACK IN TOWN.”

9:26 AM
Front door works.
Memories, oh goodness.
But now it looks considerably altered. The grey and blue floor is a notably darker hue, with skid marks and blood stains everywhere. The white-and-blue walls follow suit. The ceiling is the most notable, with rotting corpses hanging from the lights.
…hello, person.
Goodbye, person who is now running down the E hall.
Funnily enough, that’s where I was going.

9:30 AM
E108 is the room I wanted. The door’s barricaded.
I intend on entering, though. I intend on it.
Donnie’s looking at me with curiosity. Don’t worry, boss. You’ll find out soon enough.
Now then. I know all too well that there’s more than one entrance to this room.

9:32 AM
The connecting hall from the commons to the cafeteria looks… daunting, to say the least.
There’s a cheerful little fold-out sign above the doors to the cafeteria that reads “Sparta Cafe!” However, all the doors have been bolted shut and surrounded with barbed wire.
There’s stakes in front of the doors with zombie and spidercat heads on them.
But the cafeteria’s not where I was trying to go. There’s a convenient little door here on the side of the hallway; that’s what I want.
…and some poor bastard left it unlocked. Lucky us.

9:34 AM
Band room. Oh my god, the band room. It’s been far too long.
This large room looks virtually unchanged. Someone’s been keeping it clean, from the looks of it.
Wait the band director’s office door is open
It just closed WAIT

9:35 AM
Holy fuck. It’s Minor. He’s still alive.
He’s surprised I am, too. He’s surprised I actually managed to make it here.
What’s he doing?
He needs concentration. I’m taking Donnie back into the main room.
Minor was a sophomore when Bones and I were freshmen. Actually, Minor was one of the first high school band kids I met. He visited my middle school when I was in 8th grade to try to get kids to sign up for marching band. Since my brother was the Nathan Dooling, I was definitely in.
As my freshman year went on, Minor remained one of the kids I always wound up remembering. He was always chilling with Mister Brown, cracking jokes and playing his brass really well. I’d tell you what instrument he played, but it’s been over a year, man. I can’t remember.

9:56 AM
He's calling us back into the office.

9:57 AM
Oh shit, I see what he’s been doing. He’s been fixing a radio.
He says I came at a good time.
He’s turning the radio on.

9:58 AM
It’s static.
“Mephistophelectro to Bandwagon, do you read me, over?”
Static.
“Mephistophelectro to Bandwagon, we have an old friend, please come in, over.”
Static.
“Bandwagon, do you read, over?”
…noise.
Coughing.
“What is it, Minor?”
“We have an old friend.”
Silence.
“Which old friend?”
“Nathan’s little brother.”
Silence.
Static.
“Could you repeat that?”
“I thought he was in England.”
“So did I.”
Silence.
Minor “Should I just send him down to see you?”
Silence.
“…yeah, go ahead. You come down too.”
“Kay, see you soon.”

10:05 AM
Minor says we’re going down to Thermopylae.
Donnie asked what that is. Why, it’s the football field!
What better name for the Spartan battlefield?

10:11 AM
I asked Minor where in particular we’re going. Apparently, we’re going up to the box.
The box, journal, is that room way up at the very top of homeside stands in football stadiums. I’ve never actually been in it before.

10:13 AM
We’re in. Ooh, cozy in h
MISTER BROWN
FUCK YES
"Man, you can't contain that grin, can you?"
I never thought I'd see you again! I never thought I'd see Georgia again.
"You look really British." looking at my getup
Thanks! Trilbies are cool.
"So who are you?"
"Donnie. You're.. Mr. Brown?"
"Mitchell Brown." handshake "I was a band teacher."
"Ah, this is all starting to make sense."
"Can you fight, Donnie?"
Can she ever!

10:15 AM
He's gone to check on something.
Mister Brown was our band teacher. He helped make things just that much more pleasant, even when outside influences made it harder to focus on schoolwork.
I’m really excited to get to see him again because.. well, that’s how I imagine anyone would get with a teacher they really loved, right? I mean, this is the guy who doesn’t play realistic video games, and if he wanted to play a zombie game, he’d “grab a shotgun and go to downtown Atlanta.” It’s hard not to love a man with philosophies like that.
…come to think of it, that joke used to be funny for its absurdity.

10:17 AM
Brown came back.
Says the trap is set.
Asked him what trap he meant.
Says he’ll show us.

10:19 AM
We’re at the bottom of the stands now. In the middle of the football field is a tuba.
“We can’t stay in South Springs for much longer. The zombies are coming. We got a visit last night from a monster in a gas mask. He was driving a school bus filled with the undead. JT– you wouldn’t know him– got on the bus, almost like he was in some kind of trance. The masked thing told us the bus would be back today at noon. Then he drove off.”
Noon.
That’s an hour and a half from now. Okay, so what about this trap you’ve made?
“You let me worry about that.”
What do we do for now, then?
“I dunno, go crazy in the school, swing from the lights and pretend you’re the principal or something. Be back here before noon, okay?”

11:51 AM
We wound up passing the time talking about random stuff. School complaints and whatnot, and laughing at how we don’t have to worry about it anymore.
I expected things to be a lot more exciting, having complete freedom to wander my old school, but.. I guess nostalgia paints things differently. The Loop of Unhappiness Effect.
Now we’re heading back to the football field.

11:58 AM
Hey, we’re just in time for the show.
Minor’s here, but Brown’s gone.
Minor says to stand on the back field and be ready to ‘march in.’
Well, I do have Tiger Stripes on me. Guess I’m marching the guitar controller this year.

12:00 PM
Materializing on the field is he who we met yesterday. The Archangel... uh.. the Archway... uh... Arch... Archie.
He’s standing at the endzone. His gaze is fixed on me.
Minor’s standing in the center of the field, wearing the tuba.
Shit, the tuba was never his instrument as long as I’ve known him. I hope he knows what he’s doing.
And I hope Mister Brown shows up soon.

12:01 PM
I hear a lot of running footsteps nearby. Sounds like the front of the school.
And a lot of unpleasant screams. I take it the zombies are here.

12:02 PM
Good god, you can see a huge mass of colors just charging down the hill, coming to the football field at an incredible velocity.
Donnie's ready to stand her ground. Minor’s just staring at the mass patiently.

12:03 PM
I recognize some of those zombies
a lot of the
What the fuck, they’re all dead high schoolers. Teachers and students alike.
Don’t get too attached, Jordan. They’re not your friends anymore.
…but wow, I’m really gonna be leaving all of them behind. again
No. They’re already gone.
No remorse. …please. ._.;

12:04 PM
They went straight for Minor, fuck!
Prepping Tiger Stripes.
WHACK-A-MOLE TIME

12:13 PM
Shit, Minor can really fight with that tuba. It gives his body a lot of top-heavy force.

12:15 PM
What’s that noise? It sounds an awful lot like…
SCHOOOOOL BUUUUUUUUS
It’s running over plenty of zombies and coming our way.
Now it’s stopping.
…Minor says that’s JT driving! o_o

12:16 PM
JT’s urging us to get in.
But Mister Brown’s not here yet! D:
Minor got on, says Brown’ll catch up.
Well, okay
wait
Mister Brown’s catching up with us. He’s asking what the hell just happened.
JT just happened, man.
”Don’t get on that bus! What are you doing?!“
DOOR CLOSED
DRIVING OFF
MINOR’S IN IT
FUCK

12:21 PM
We’re up at the main street.
All the zombies have suddenly vanished.
There’s not a hint of a bus anywhere. Not even the faint roar of its engine.
What the fuck.

12:24 PM
Donnie says to look at a gas station nearby.
It’s Archie. Staring at us. Arms outstretched, as if expecting us to come up.

12:45 PM
We went back to the band room and sat in Mister Brown’s office in silence for a while. Then he looked at us.
"What the hell happened to the plan?"
You never told us the plan.
"I was coming out with a cart full of weapons. Some hammers and drills and things left over from the janitor's closet, but a shit-ton of instruments too. They'd have lasted us a good few days at the least."
I don't think this would have done much good. That guy out there was a Fear, and one in charge of the dead. He just wanted a show.
"'Fear,' what's, what's a 'Fear?'"
Uh. Very, very powerful monsters.
donnie "you have those essays that rogers made"
Yeah, uh. Hang on, these might help. These were written by someone we met in Liverpool.

12:49 PM
He read them, doubling back sometimes, and muttering.
Then he gave them back.
"Okay, that read like a knockoff Doctor Who episode; I take it your friend wasn't a writer. But point taken, there are monsters now that we've got to share our planet with."
He's getting up.
"I think another one's been with us for a while."

12:50 PM
Led us to the cafeteria.
It's utterly trashed.
"I don't like going in here anymore. Spending too long in here, I'd start hearing things. Sometimes I'd swear I was seeing things too. Things I've seen before, old memories, things that can't be here now. One night I was in here, by myself. The whole school was empty, I knew this for a fact, as I'd just done a sweep with Minor before he left for the night. And I was here, in the cafeteria, in the dead of night, with two men I'd never seen before."
Two men…
"Black suits and hats, much like yours. Skin pale as ghosts, all I could make out of their faces were two black beady eyes. My vision couldn't focus so long as I was looking at them. I tried to speak to them, but my fucking voice wouldn't come out. Instead, I sounded like a saxophone."
Did they say anything to you?
"Yeah. They said it so loud I was deaf for a few days."
What did they say?
"'This is the place.'"
Like. Like they were scoping this building out?
donnie "When was this?"
"A while ago. Start of June."
looking at this cafeteria... I do keep thinking I can see mushrooms on the tables. red, cartoonish mushrooms.
"This is another Fear, right?"
I think so. I think they're called the Musicians.
"Great, we're competing with another band. C'mon, let's get out of this haunted moldy room."

6:05 PM
We spent the rest of our time just idling, talking about old times, comparing notes on the apocalypse. He thinks it's silly to call it the apocalypse, but.. he's coming around.
I probably shouldn’t be saying this, but we’re all pretty sure Minor and JT are gone.
We’re in Derek's house. All three of us, Mister Brown came along too.
We all agreed it wasn’t a good idea to stay in South Springs for much longer.
I’m.. I’m gonna go to bed. Donnie wants to go with me.
Mister Brown says he’ll stay up for a while. Says he has a lot of things to figure out.

11:00 PM
Some films rely on our fear of the familiar becoming the unknown, or in other words, our fear of death. This is often a very difficult fear to represent in media, but the fear of death is a very justified and real one. It’s the fear of the end, or of the knowledge that everything’s coming to an end, and it goes hand-in-hand with worries about blame.
Body horror is often used in horror, disgusting things done to our bodies, especially when feral animals are used. The same feral animals, usually dogs, are often used as omens, much like vague illnesses. This is a fear of body horror and dogs.
Newborns in horror are used to refer to the fear of the future, for the newborns that cause fear are the ones who look terribly off. This provokes the fear in viewers that this newborn will grow up to be something terrifying.
Eyes are the symbol of judgement. Humans have a natural fear of being judged. Horror tends to make the most use of this.
Fear is not limited to just creatures. We humans also greatly fear alien architecture, incomprehensible landscapes, and the concept of being whisked away into an alternate world by as comfortable a trap as a door. The inability to escape is another popular fear.
Fear the day the Fears fall from their thrones.

(Attached: ”Jordan's background, since he's not here to discuss it, is that of a British immigrant raised in America. His father was a managerial IT guru who lavished his family with money to make up for the fact he was never home, which he made sure of by drinking his evenings away. The times he was home, he brought his work with him and did not like being interrupted. His mother was a housewife with aspirations to act in Hollywood, but was instead saddled with three boys when what she wanted was a daughter. The boys had video games, lots of video games, and a computer to each of them. The mother had television and medication.
Jordan was the youngest of the three boys. One brother was The Bad One, spreading toxicity and violence at a moment's notice, usually when the parents weren't around. The other brother was The Good One, the one to look up to, who preached responsibility and the middle path and prioritizing the comfort of those around him. The Good One was very popular at school. Jordan dreamed of the day he'd get his chance.
The thing is, Jordan was a big source of affection for that whole household. He hugged his parents goodnight every night, he stuck up for his brothers, he believed in doing the right thing and telling the truth and loving his life. But he was still left alone, left in the care of people who didn't want to raise kids, and an older brother who definitely had no purpose being in that position.
The finer details of what happened in that house are not my story to tell, and Jordan isn't here to give me permission. But the facts stand: Jordan is scared of knives, preoccupied with sex, willing to stare into the face of scary men, and pathologically convinced he can make sense of a chaotic world. And here we see him.. something like happy.
When the father lost his American job and the family had to move back to an England Jordan did not know, Jordan fell through the system and never went to school again, crying himself to sleep at night. And he ended his 2010 with a loved one's hands around his neck.
That's Jordan's background. The apocalypse is pressure, but Jordan already had an idea of how to operate under pressure. It's friends that he wasn't used to.“)