Boseman High School Shenanigans: Episode 1

When the battle breaks out, Zach instinctively moves in closer to Rose. She's probably tougher than him, but he still always feels protective of her and he could never forgive himself if something bad happened to her. "Hey, slugs," he calls out to the attackers as he jabs at them with the broken cattleprod. He's not a great fighter and others can use the few remaining weapons more than he can. His intention is to keep their attention off Rose so they won't hurt her, but if he does well enough, he should also distract them from the more skilled fighters around. "If I were as ugly as you, I'd also hide in our much prettier human bodies!" Internally, he rolls his eyes at his own terrible taunts. Why can't he come up with something more clever, like some action movie hero? "I killed the one of you who was inside Gromn. And Belinda. And about two dozen more by this point. Are you mad?"

"Steve? Steve! My God!" Emily rushes him, bear hugs the boy, and covers him in slime. Then she starts spraying anyone who threatens her or the others.

Lily looks for her parents amid the crowd of rescuers. Bentley was there, and so she peeks around the group to find her parents who had been taken along with the officer. Her eyes meet Wendy’s, and then she feels the sudden pressing weight of the shotgun being waved around the room!

She grits her teeth, and reaches out with her mind, hoping to do some damage to the aliens with the powers the blue being above granted to her!

She can’t speak, can’t hope… until that mother fucker with the shotgun is out of the fight!

Freddie is supposed to be the jock. He was once, before the car accident. But he surges ahead now, taking the middle as his friends form ranks behind him, fighting for the survival of their school, their town, maybe more. A chisel in one hand, a ray gun in the other he fights, and he fights hard.

Emily with her gun and the pepper spray. Lily with her freaky deaky magic gifted no doubt from the blue space ghost. Zach using his best asset, his smart mouth. They're a team, and he loves them all.

Lily wrestles with the Sheriff’s mind, as she turns her probing powers on to the bastard’s skull.

Drop the gun! she commands wordlessly, and she can feel herself clawing into the man’s brain; forcing his body to obey under the threat of further pain. Another command, and the weapon is tossed aside and out of reach.

With the heavy weapons out of the way, it’s shillelagh law, and the ruckus breaks out. Sticking close to Wendy and her brother, Lily whips out wild with fists, and raygun; sometimes even using the thing as a club if resistance is stiff. With such a gathering of Boseman’s finest, its quick work.

Lily tries to call off the hounds, holding her raygun aloft for all to see!

"We can save them! Wait! We can still save them!"

Zach does what he can to protect Rose. Aaron, luckily, is still unconscious in the back of the room. Safe, as long as they don't let the slugged people get past their little line of defense. But he can't let them get to Rose again. Losing her to the slugs once already showed him how much he cares about his annoying little sister. And so he swings his broken cattleprod at any slug-infected-looking face that comes near, even stabs it at one or two people. He's not going to kill anyone, but if a couple people come out of this with some injuries, well, that's better than the alternative of just giving up.
He sees Lily raise the raygun, remind everyone that they have all they need to save everyone. It gives him new energy. All he needs to do is hold the horde back long enough for them all to get cured. And considering all the vomit he's expecting, then he'll likely need to buy a new shirt.

When the door opens he sees Clutch and the mob attacking the forces of evil: Mr. Levitt, Romero, Ms. Maidstone, Coach Murdock, Mr. Edge, Mr. Polensky, Ms. Romanov, and of course, Sheriff Akins.

Freddie, having passed the gun back to Emily, welcomes Atkins in, then knees him in the groin, before capping him with the vomit gun. He dives into the hallway, swinging the chisel like a flashy distractionator pulling the trigger as fast as he can. This is no sitting duck shooting contest at the midway, it's a brawl. The gun is fired while pressed against faces, feet, stomachs. At one point he has it jammed down Ms. Maidstone's lycra top and between her bewbs, and he winces to pull the trigger on such fine -- FOCUS!

Caught in between the two sets of unruly teens, the slug squad is on the ropes.

Emily snatches the gun from Freddie and waves it around threateningly, especially at the asshole Sherriff.

"Ever been pepper sprayed, Akins? How 'bout now, fuck face!" Emily depresses the button, a maniacal laugh escaping her vomit-breathed mouth as she follows Freddie out into the hallway, pepper spray in one hand and pistol in the other, like some kind of western showdown at the OK Corral, only this ain't TV, it's reality.

Freddie waves goodbye one last time, as Emily drives away. A great deal of attention has fallen on the town of Boseman, and her parents mysterious past had them packed and leaving. They had a good run together, and his eyes sting with salty tears at the thought he'd not see her tomorrow, or the next day, or ever again.

Freddie is still a good looking man, but the scars of war have left him a gruesome shadow of the man he thought he'd be. The burns have healed but left his left arm is a horrible knot of angry tissue. He wears long sleeves even when it's hot to hide the damage. His eyes are shadowed and haunted by terror and drug use.

Belinda is gone, having left shortly after the incident at the school. She was ashamed, horrified by what had happened, and at her own involuntary complicity in the horrible invasion. She electronically signs documents when needed, but that's in exchange for the Solomon children gaining control over most of the estate, and their silence, and a monthly allowance to keep her from living on the streets.

Sarah and Debby are coming out of their trauma. Councilling has helped them heal, along with honesty and care from their brother. He's firm with them, to give them a rock to stand on, but loving as well.

The war. That's what it was. Somehow the Men in Black missed a slug, and it got free. With no tools left to fight the growing cult of the possessed, Freddie and the teens of Boseman became the frontline in essentially a mob war. Disavowed by the government, they were little more than murderers at first. Eventually they found the secret to expelling the ever multiplying slugs with a combination of illicit drugs. Who knew meth was good for anything?

Lily was scary. Her interactions with the blue ghost left her with strange insights and abilities. Still, her tactical teen genius, their Teenius he called her, was the difference in several of the guerilla assaults they made on Sluggo compounds. Every war needs generals.

The four of them, the core four, had survived it all, though many friends were lost. The last shoe would drop soon, Freddie feared, he just hoped if they finally decided to arrest him and drag him to prison, his sisters would be adults. And if he went down, maybe his friends would be spared. He'd take all the blame, in exchange for their freedom.

Yeah, and if wishes were spaceships, slugs would fly.

Life hadn't really returned back to normal after that day. Really, that week, but while things had been brewing for a bit, they all had only come to a head on that one day. The day before what had been meant to be Homecoming.
Somehow, they all had survived. Nobody had lost their lives that faithful day - nobody except Mr. Unger - but even when it had seemed over, things hadn't gone back to the way they had been before. All of them had simply seen too much.

Zach and Aaron became a thing after that day. No Homecoming dance for them, but after fighting off an alien invasion, being the gay kid in school suddenly didn't seem so scary anymore. People even respected Zach anyway, for having been at the heart of it all. Still, that relationship didn't last. After that day, Zach began training, bulking up, practicing to fight. He could have died down there in that asylum or steam plant and he never wanted to be caught vulnerable like this again. And Aaron, lovely as the dorky boy was, didn't fit into this life. Zach's thoughts always turned back to Marco, who was a complete douche, but who at least had fought by Zach's side in that tunnel, who was strong and tough in a way Aaron wasn't.
Of course that didn't work either. They had one encounter, not long before graduation, but it was rough, uncomfortable and brought nothing but regret to Zach. At least it was a final cue to finally end things with Aaron. Another decision followed - to move far away from Boseman, from this cursed city, right after graduation.

But of course, he never got that chance. It all started with Priya. But the thing inside her, somehow, it procreated. Somehow, it all happened again. But this time, there were no miraculous alien wonder weapons.
Rosie was among the first of Priya's new wave of infected and she was the first to be killed by the resistance. Zach held her as she died, pulling the slug from her open chest to have one last moment with his little sister.

He had never wanted to get involved with anything like the slugs ever again. But he did, in her memory. And somehow, his three friends were still by his side throughout it all. Somehow, they beat back the slugs for a second time.
But while the world was celebrating, Zachary Tidwell did not rejoice. They had beaten the slugs once. Twice. There would be a third time. In his heart, he knew there would be.
So he waited.

Uncharacteristically, Emily burst into tears after she kissed Freddie goodbye. She hadn't realized how special he was despite his roving eye. She'd miss him, at least for a while. As to the others, Lilly and Zach, probably not.

Once in the car, a few more tears slid down her cheeks and then she snapped at Steve who bore the brunt of all her angst. He was an idiot anyway. She caught her father's glaring eyes drilling daggers at her through the rearview mirror, yet oddly her mother wasn't angry at her at all. Emily even caught something soft in her eyes. Was it empathy? Compassion? Whatever it was, it was welcome. She was going to need all the emotional support from her mom that she could get. Maybe the unbelievable turn of events would bring them closer together. Time would tell.

"They’re ready for you, ma’am." the shivering intern said over a clipboard, as Lily had the final touches put on her hair and makeup. She swings the chair about, and looks at Wendy.

"So, how do I look?" she asks the woman, with a wry smile. The pink, healed skin across her cheek had been covered. That had been a conversation all of its own…

"Ready!" Wendy remarks, before brushing something off of Lily’s shoulders.

The time after Boseman had been turbulent. Something had awoken in Lily. Something that had helped them, and yet made those around her fear looking the girl in the eye. Everyone except Wendy, and those that had seen the blue man beneath the school all those years ago.

Whatever had awoken had given Lily an edge. Not just an edge in their war against the worms, but also in other avenues. Her senses were sharpened, and she knew how to cut to the quick of things. She had rallied their forces many a time over the various battles, just as she had back then…

"Let’s do this then!" she says, with a heavy sigh, and taking Wendy by the hand. Their planned outfits complimented each other; a united front for the world to see. They exit the backstage room, and make for the stage.

The hustle and bustle from the front of house can be heard all the way back here. An MC drones over the mic, but the crowd is waiting for one thing. The intern that had called for Lily to get ready stood nearby and spoke into his headset.

The crowd up front hushes suddenly. The lights must be signaling that the show was about to begin.

Over the mic, she can hear the words:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, please rise and welcome the 47th President of these United States. President Lily Palmer, and First Lady Wendy Palmer."

And then the crowd is cheering. Lily takes a final deep breath, and then steps out into the blinding lights and deafening applause, squeezing Wendy’s hand as they make for the podium.