Forthrightly's Halloween Challenge
Submitted for Forthright’s Halloween Challenge. 497 words.
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They had nothing in common; it was amazingly bad luck. Sango was barricaded in the school auto-shop with three other students after the Halloween Dance had gone horribly wrong. It figured that zombies would invade on Halloween, when it wasn’t immediately obvious that the bloodthirsty monsters were anything other than cleverly costumed teens. Not only had supposedly mythical cannibals ruined an otherwise lovely evening, but she’d been separated from her squad and thrown together with the most random combination of her classmates imaginable. And Miroku was giving her the eye.
“What?” she snapped at him.
“Nothing at all”, he replied beatifically. He seemed to be content in mortal danger, so long as he got to ogle a cheerleader at the same time.
Sango rolled her eyes again. Once again she wished that instead of a fetishistic geek dressed as a “Warrior Monk” she had at least one member of her squad for back-up; they were a team, darn it. Together they could have found a way out of this mess.
“Guys, this isn’t the greatest time for flirting”, Inuyasha said brusquely. Sango silently snarked that he wasn’t one to talk. In the initial melee he’d revealed a heroic streak (apparently the katana he’d worn with his costume was fully functional, which was a blatant violation of school policy). Now sweet, preppy Kagome was hanging on his every word, and the slightly creepy loner had never looked happier.
“Yeah, we need to work together!” Kagome enthused. “Assuming this isn’t an apocalypse , we need to figure out a way to get back to civilization before the government bombs the school to contain the plague!”
“Assuming this is an apocalypse, we need to prepare ourselves to repopulate the planet.”
Gah! When had Miroku gotten so close? Sango instinctively trapped him in a joint lock. “Tae-Kwan-Do black belt”, she informed him tersely, and watched with alarm as his smirk expanded. Great, he was a Lara Croft fetishist, too.
“Hey, kids? I’ve got an idea.” Inuyasha was grinning in a way she found vaguely disturbing, until he explained. Then she was grinning, too.
Twenty minutes later, they had taken positions in a mostly functional automobile that had been someone’s final project in Shop. Kagome held the driver’s seat (she was the only one with a license), and Miroku and Inuyasha had taken shotgun and rearguard respectively. Sango was prepared to unbolt the barricaded door, and then hop into their non-traditional tank. Inuyasha had wanted that role, but Sango’s athletic training and Pink Power Ranger armor gave her the greatest probability of injury-free success. Now that they’d gotten down to business Sango had to admit that their motley crew was exhibiting teamwork worthy of her cheer squad.
Kagome offered up a shaky smile. “You know, if we survive this, I think us four will be friends.”
To her own surprise, Sango agreed. Life and death circumstances could bind the most unlikely of allies.
“Okay team”, she said in nervous anticipation. “Let’s roll.”