Beyond the Barrier: Zombie Town One-shots

To Keep You Safe

(Sorry about the lack of Limelight over the last few days, it's taken me a while to get the next done and I still need to figure out one minor detail (which is proving really difficult) but I have a lot of BtB ideas! All of them involving Bonzo in one way or another. Here's the first of them~ Another one about the aftermath of a canon scene that I was curious about: what happened after the patrol showed up and shut down the zombie mash?

Featuring some BG zombies~!)

As soon as the lights shut off, he was gone. It was practically instinct by now. If the patrol shows up at a zombie mash, you run. So Zed ran.

He didn't stop to think.

He didn't stop for Addison.

There was a winding corridor that led deeper into the power plant to a stairwell, and that took you down into the basement. If you knew where to look, and all of the zombies there did, you would find the spots where loose bricks, dislodged panels and broken windows gave way to openings just barely big enough to climb through. They had been discovered one by one over the years of raids, even before mashes were a thing and the plant was little more than a simple hideout. It formed a makeshift escape tunnel to the outside, to the space behind the plant.

Zed turned the corner out of the light garden just as Denzel, Zach, Zane and Chaz raced past him. Rizzo, Zephyr and Alonzo were close behind. He could see Roz, Zora and Topaz further ahead. He counted each of them off in his mind. They all kept track of who was safe and who wasn't, it was an unspoken agreement. They had to look out for each other. They kept each other safe, as best they could. There were still screams coming from the main hall.

- BEYOND THE BARRIER -

Eliza had only just walked out of the plant, hand-in-hand with Zoey, when the first jeep pulled up close by. She didn't hesitate for a second; she picked up Zoey, held a finger to her lips and ducked behind a fence. It was dark enough that they wouldn't see them if they could just keep still enough. She pulled Zoey as close to her as she possibly could get, gently stroking her hair while keeping her eyes locked on the officers who remained outside. Zoey gasped when she saw them look up at the lights pulsing behind the mostly-covered windows above and stormed into the plant, every one of them already with a hand on their tasers. Eliza carefully turned her away, resting her chin on top of Zoey's head and rocking her back and forth.

"Sshh... It's gonna be OK," she whispered as Zoey hid her face in Eliza's chest, "They'll get out. We just have to wait."

She was trying to convince herself just as much as Zoey, but Zoey was the priority. She had to keep her safe. Zed wasn't here, and Eliza was all she had right now.

- BEYOND THE BARRIER -

"ZPD!"

The dance floor was dark, only illuminated by the flashlights of the officers. Shadows of zombies ran for the corridor, too many of them being caught by the patrol, tripping, blind in the darkness, or losing their way in the panic and coming to dead ends. Screams and shouts rang out, piercing Bonzo's ears.

He was crouched behind his booth, his back against the wall, trying and failing to calm himself. His breathing was staggered, short and fast. Zed and Eliza had both disappeared a short while before the patrol showed up and he could only hope they got out in time. After a minute or two, he turned and peaked out over the top. There were only a few zombies left and Bonzo couldn't be sure how many had made it to safety and how many were being dragged away to zombie containment. A flashlight was knocked from an officer's hand by a certain aggressive little zombie, its beam briefly lighting up her face, and Bonzo let out a sigh, pressing his forehead against the corner of the booth.