AN: C'mon guys, gimme some powerstones. 2 chs today. Enjoy.
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[Next Day] [8:00 AM] [Apartment Set]
By eight in the morning, the apartment set looked even colder than it had the day before.
The lights had been adjusted to give the room that early, sickly morning feel. The computer monitor still glowed faintly from the desk, the empty Mountain Dew bottles remained exactly where they had been left, and the pizza boxes near the chair had been reset into the same leaning tower of lonely decisions.
Jack sat on the couch in Columbus's clothes, slumped awkwardly with his mouth slightly open and his head tilted to the left. A blanket had been tossed half over his lap, and his glasses sat crooked on his face.
Beside him, Penny waited in full zombie makeup.
The transformation was dramatic enough that most of the crew had done a double take when she first walked onto set.
Her skin had been painted pale and sickly beneath dark veins. Black-red blood streaked her mouth, chin, neck, and the front of her shirt. Her eyes had been made to look swollen and wrong, with cloudy contact lenses that gave her stare a terrifying, empty focus. The makeup team had added wet shine around her mouth to make the infection look fresh.
Penny had looked in the mirror after the final touch-up and whispered, "I'm never eating breakfast again."
Jack laughed, saying, "You look terrifying."
"I know, right?" Penny said, turning her head and checking her cheeks. "I'm a zombie. Rawrrr!" She turned toward Jack and made a claw gesture with her right hand. "How was it?"
"A bit more depth and show your black teeth," Jack said as he took out his phone.
Penny opened her mouth and showed him her blackened zombie teeth and made another, "Rawrrr!" With another claw gesture, but with both hands this time.
"Nice. Do the gurgling sound as if your throat is full of blood," He said.
Jack took a small video of her making different faces and gestures.
"Send me the videos," She said with a large smile.
They had a little fun moment.
Now she sat beside Jack on the couch, leaning slightly toward him, waiting for the camera to roll.
"You ready?" Jack asked.
Penny just nodded since her mouth was full of gooey blueberry syrup that would act as blood and drool.
Christopher stood behind the monitor with Phil beside him. Emma watched from a chair near the edge of the set, holding a coffee. Richard stood a little farther back with his arms crossed, interested but quiet.
The assistant director raised her hand.
"Quiet on set."
The stage fell silent.
"Roll sound."
"Sound speeds."
"Roll camera."
"Camera speeds."
The slate snapped in front of the lens.
"Scene 28, 406 zombie reveal, take one."
Christopher leaned toward the monitor.
"Action."
..
For a few seconds, nothing moved.
Columbus slept deeply on the couch, completely unaware that the world had changed beside him. His mouth hung open just enough to make him look painfully defenseless.
Then he twitched.
His shoulders shifted.
His head rolled slightly before he blinked awake, confused and heavy with sleep. He looked straight ahead, trying to remember where he was, then slowly pieced it together.
Couch.
Apartment.
Girl.
Right.
A tiny smile began to form on his face as he turned toward where 406 should have been sleeping peacefully beside him.
Instead, Penny was sitting a foot from his face.
Zombie 406 stared at him with bulging, blood-smeared curiosity. Her head tilted slightly, almost like a dog hearing a strange sound. Then her mouth stretched into a grin that looked less human than hungry.
Jack's entire body locked.
His eyes went wide behind the glasses.
"Ghaaaaa!"
He launched backward off the couch so violently that he nearly took the blanket with him. He hit the floor on his back, scrambled on his elbows, and kicked one leg uselessly against the side table.
"Oh my God!" Columbus shouted, breathless and horrified. "Are you alright?!"
Zombie 406 stayed on the couch.
For one awful second, she just watched him.
Then Penny sniffed the air slowly.
Her shoulders rose as if she had just caught the smell of something delicious. She opened her mouth like she might answer him.
Instead, she made a thick, wet hiss from the back of her throat as black blood dribbled down her mouth.
"Hhhkkkrrrraaaahhh."
Then she sprang forward.
"Ahhh!"
Columbus stumbled to his feet and backed away as fast as he could. Penny lunged after him with terrifying speed, arms reaching, mouth open, blood shining under the cold light.
Jack turned and sprinted into the tiny dining area.
Penny followed right behind him.
Columbus grabbed one of the prop dining chairs and shoved it backward into her path. Then another. The first chair skidded across the floor, and the second tipped sideways with a wooden scrape.
Zombie 406 crashed into them.
Her legs tangled in the chair legs, and she slipped hard onto one knee before catching herself with both hands. The movement looked messy and violent enough that the stunt coordinator leaned forward, ready to call cut if she had landed badly.
But Penny stayed in character.
She snapped her head up toward Columbus and hissed again.
Jack, already halfway into the kitchen, grabbed the blender from the counter with both hands and lifted it over his head like it was a sacred weapon.
"Stay back!" Columbus shouted, voice cracking. "I don't wanna hurt you!"
The top of the blender slipped loose and clattered to the floor.
Jack looked down at it for half a second.
Even through the scene, Emma had to press her lips together to keep from laughing.
Zombie 406 did not care about the blender lid.
She got to her feet and bum-rushed him.
Columbus panicked instantly. The idea of actually hitting his neighbor, even his terrifying infected neighbor, was too much for him. He made a strangled noise, ditched the blender onto the counter, and ran.
Christopher let the camera chase Jack's retreat for another second before calling, "Cut!"
Penny stopped immediately, bending forward with both hands on her knees as Jack turned around near the kitchen doorway, breathing hard.
"That was good," Christopher said from behind the monitor. "Really good energy."
Penny lifted one hand, still bent over. "Thanks."
Then she coughed.
Jack's expression changed immediately. "You okay?"
Penny nodded quickly, then coughed again and waved toward her throat. "Yeah, yeah. I just went a little too zombie."
A crew member hurried over with a bottle of water. Penny took it gratefully and drank several long gulps while the makeup artist checked the blood around her mouth. "I drank the syrup. It's safe, right?"
"Yep," Christopher nodded. "Just blueberry syrup."
"Okay. We're gonna run the scene again. The first take was good, but it was a bit faster. Let's go a bit slower this time. No need to rush," Phil announced.
The crew reset the apartment.
The chairs were put back in place. The blender lid was returned to its loose starting position. The blanket went back onto the couch, and makeup touched up the blood on Penny's chin and neck. Jack returned to his sleeping position, mouth open, head tilted, looking once again like a man whose biggest danger should have been poor posture.
Penny rolled her shoulders, took one more careful breath, and sat beside him.
The assistant director called the set quiet again.
"Roll sound."
"Sound speeds."
"Roll camera."
"Camera speeds."
The slate snapped.
"Scene twenty-eight, 406 zombie reveal, take two."
Christopher watched the monitor.
"Action."
...
Columbus stirred awake.
He blinked, confused and slow, then turned toward 406 with the sleepy hope of a man expecting a romantic miracle.
Instead, he found death sitting beside him.
Zombie 406 stared at him from inches away, blood smeared across her face, eyes wide and wrong. Her grin appeared slowly this time, almost curious before it became cruel.
"Ghaaaaa!"
Columbus flew backward off the couch, hit the floor, and scrambled away.
"Oh my God! Are you alright?!"
Penny sniffed the air again, but this time the sound came lower and quieter. It was still unsettling, but cleaner. Her mouth opened, her body tensed, and instead of forcing the noise from her throat, she let out a sharp, animal hiss.
Then she launched herself at him with zombie sound and drooling blood.
"Ahhh!"
Columbus ran.
He shoved the dining chairs into her path, one after the other. Zombie 406 tangled in them, slipped, recovered, and snapped her gaze back to him with hungry focus.
She staggered into the kitchen.
Columbus grabbed the blender and held it over his head.
"Stay back! I don't wanna hurt you!"
The blender lid fell perfectly.
It hit the floor with a ridiculous little plastic bounce.
Jack stared at it in pure Columbus horror, as if even the blender had betrayed him.
Zombie 406 charged.
Columbus ditched the blender and bolted out of frame.
Christopher kept the camera rolling half a second longer as Penny slammed into the kitchen counter, reached after him, and snarled toward the space where he had disappeared.
Then Christopher called, "Cut!"
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