#ceramiclemon

The weekend before Halloween, the Samwell men’s hockey team all got on the bus and rode to Providence.

“Lardo? Why did you make it seem like we won’t survive this?” Chowder asked once they got going.

She smirked at him and ruffled his hair. “Don’t worry. You’ll understand soon.”

A few of the guys plastered themselves to the windows once they reached Providence. Within seconds they were all sending each other random snapchats of the things they were passing and some of their sleeping teammates with the city’s filters. Lardo typed away at her phone before putting it to her ear.

“We’re like ten minutes out, bro,” she said into the receiver.

She listened to the other person for a moment. “Nope! Nobody knows, unless you told someone.”

Chowder, Tango, and Whiskey all looked at each other curiously and a little confused.

“What’s she talking about?”

“Who’s she talking to?”

The bus pulled into a parking lot when she hung up. All the guys’ dropped open, Bitty’s included, when they saw the banner across the parking lot: FALCONERS 1ST ANNUAL ZOMBIE RUN.

Turned out, Jack had e-mailed Lardo with a flyer for this event asking if she wanted him to get the team tickets. The coaches signed off on it pretty quickly. Team bonding plus some conditioning? Duh!

It was Lardo’s idea to keep it from all of them. They had both been surprised that no one had caught wind from any of the Falcs media that this was going down.

Once everyone was off the bus and at the entrance, Lardo quieted them all down.

“Wellies! Dudes! Bros! Listen up! As you can tell, today you are doing a Zombie Run. This isn’t your normal 5k race. There will be obstacles, challenges, and brain-hungry zombie chasing your asses.This isn’t about how fast you make it through--it’s about if you can make it through alive.

“Soon you will all get a belt,” she motioned for Holster to hold one up. “These are your health. There are five flags. The zombies will come after these. A zombie can only take one flag at a time. There will be no physical contact. They will wait for you to complete an obstacle before attacking.

“You can go through as a group or team or whatever. Surviving means you have at least one flag left at the end. If you are in a team, if one person still has health, you will all be considered survivors and receive survivor medals. If you lose all your health, you will get an infected medal at the end. Any questions?”

“Uh, where do the Falcs come in in all this?” Tango asked.

“A good question! They are the zombies.” There went all of their focus and attention. “Guys! During the run, you are not to stop and chat and die because they are your fav. There’ll be time at the end of all this to mingle and get selfies. Focus on completing the run alive.”

“Wait,” Ransom spoke up, “you mean we’re going to meet all the Falcs? As in…”

“Yup,” Lardo said with a smirk. “You can all thank Jack later--”

“What about thanking me?”

Lardo turned around to see a zombified Jack walking over to them. He was wearing his Falcs jersey, but it was covered in dirt and fake blood with tears in strategic places to show off both the injuries and bruises painted on and his body. Hello, fan service! His hair was mussed with fake blood coming down it onto his forehead and down to his cheekbone.

“You make a good zombie, dude,” she said as he pulled her into a quick side hug.

“Thanks. You guys ready?” he asked the team.

“Hell yeah!”

“Ain’t no way we’re letting you get the best of us.”

The guys yelled various bravados and intimidations, but Jack just ducked his head with a smile.

“Hey, Rans?” Jack asked.

“Yeah, bro?”

“How can you expect to focus on surviving when Tater is the one running after you?” Jack chirped

---

They split into smaller groups after the got their health belts, besides a few frogs that wanted to attempt it alone.

Team D: Chowder, Dex, Nursey,

Team Dibs Please: Ollie, Wicks, Tango, and Whiskey.

Team Haus: Lardo, Bitty, Ransom, Holster, and Shitty (who had come down to visit Jack for the weekend).

Team Ribbit consisted of the frogs that wanted to stick together.

After a grueling hour and a half, all of them finished, but the only ones that survived were Team D, thanks to Nursey’s one flag left, and one of the frogs that went it alone.

Team Dibs Please had fumbled after an obstacle and got chased down by Jack and Guy, who took Whiskey and Wicks’ final flags.

Team Haus had been slowed up when Ransom first saw Tater. He froze to the spot and no matter how many “dammit Justin”s came out of Holster mouth, he didn’t move until Tater noticed them. He turned and gave them a big, flashy smile before remembering himself and falling back into character. They all scrambled back, and were pleased to find out that Tater was one of the crawler zombies that couldn’t run. They didn’t notice Snowy behind them until it was too late.

Team Ribbit fell apart early on. Thirdy started after them from the beginning. If a member fell back, he was abandoned. Lardo chirped them later on for not having each other's backs like a good team would.

---

They were all catching their breath and getting hydrated in the tent near the finish line when a big hand clapped on Ransom’s shoulder.

“You are Jack’s old team, yes?” Tater asked with a wide grin. “He told to make sure you got infection, but were talked to after.”

“Rans?” Holster asked, a little hesitant. “Bro, you good? You breathing?”

Ransom was looking up at Tater with his lips parted and eyes wide.

“I might literally swoon right now,” he muttered to himself.

Lardo, Bitty, and Tater all laughed while Holster rolled his eyes.