Dead End High
Hochstetler Strikes

It seemed the only thing he could do was to make a run for it and fight his way through the hordes of zombies. But he couldn’t leave Daisy, even if she had been brainwashed by Scott, Darren and Doug. Besides, he no longer wished to run. It was time to make a stand and trust that Constable Clements had something up his sleeve.

‘Stay away from me!’ Adam stuck his hand out in front of Miss Crazy and her two henchmen. ‘I’ll fight you if I have to!’

‘Now that’s not necessary,’ Morgan Grimes said in a gentle tone.

‘Adam, please,’ Miss Crazy held out her arms, ‘we only want to help you.’

‘Yeah right, by turning me into some kind of zombie like all the others.’

‘Zombies?’ Miss Crazy frowned. ‘What do you mean?’

The zombies stopped their approach and stared with vacant eyes. There was no doubt now, Miss Crazy was in control of these beasts. He had to try to buy some time and hoped that the constable would create an opening for him.

‘Ok, maybe they’re not zombies.’ Adam waited for a plan to pop into his head. ‘But they’re people controlled by your alien parasites. You’re not going to take me!’

Miss Crazy glanced at the two men beside her. Their expressions remained blank. Morgan even shrugged. ‘Adam calm down. There are no aliens and no zombies. They’re not really there.’

’If they’re not zombies, what the hell are they?’

Miss Crazy and her two colleagues turned their eyes to where he pointed. The zombies stood there - as plain as day, but all three of them turned back with innocent expressions. ‘There’s nothing there, Adam,’ Miss Crazy said softly. ‘They’re in your mind.’

’You know they’re there and I know you’re aliens!’

‘Adam, it’s obvious to me that you think we’re some kind of villains out to get you. But you nearly injured yourself when you tried to outrun us in that car. You’re putting your wellbeing in danger and we can’t allow that.’

Adam thought about his arm again. Some feeling was starting to return, but fortunately no pain. Perhaps he had been lucky. ‘I’m fine! Anyway, you could have taken me ages ago, why wait?’

’Adam, I don’t know what you’ve seen or what you think people are trying to tell you, but none of this is what you think. We’re here to help you. That’s all we want to do.’

‘By turning me into a zombie? Or possessing my body? Is that what you want?’

‘Of course not! What makes you think we would or even could?’

He started to laugh. ‘It’s what you’re doing to everyone else in this town.’

Miss Crazy shook her head sadly. ‘We haven’t done anything to anyone.’ Her voice became muffled once more and Adam flinched, realising that once again his hearing was going on him. But her voice gradually began to become clearer ‘Come on Adam, try to think. Try to clear your mind.’

Adam attempted a semi-bluff, ‘Constable Clements knows what you’re up to and he’s here with a whole bunch of guys to take you in. You’re aliens. You’ve turned my friends into zombies. You took my parents. You want me for some sick perverse experiment. You want this whole town and everyone in it!’

Don took a few steps forward. ‘Damn it kid, that’s not true!’

‘Don, let me handle this.’ Miss Crazy held him back. ‘Getting impatient is not going to work.’

‘You guys.’ Adam pointed to Don and Morgan. ‘You’ve been plotting against me. I overheard you talking outside the Collins house late one night. Don’t try to deny it.’

Morgan threw up his hands. ‘We weren’t plotting. Whatever you thought you heard was not what was going on. That’s all I can say.’

‘Just let me go!’

‘Adam...’ Miss Crazy’s expression softened. ‘You need to see the truth. Trust us.’ Her voice once again started to become muffled, but this time he could make out what she said and as she continued to speak, her voice cleared gradually. ‘We aren’t trying to… anything to any…. There… no zombies. The truth is, there… no one else in this town. Only you, me, and my friends.’

Adam stared at Miss Crazy in disbelief. It couldn’t be true. His friends, his family, Drake, Doug, Daisy… ‘No!’ He turned his eyes up to the mezzanine floor. ‘Guys, come down here!’

No reply came. He squinted to see if they were hiding. Adam would have been reassured to see the two-headed Scott and the robotic Darren right now, but they didn’t appear. He moved over to the metal staircase. Miss Crazy and her two henchmen made no move to stop him. He scaled it and searched amongst the machinery. Nobody was there.

‘Where the hell did they go?’ Adam scowled. ‘Come on guys, show yourselves, prove to her you’re real!’ Adam barged back down the staircase. He’d show her. ‘In this vat!’ He walked to the railing, above the vat into which Todd had fallen. ‘Look in here!’ Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ (ꜰind)ɴʘvel.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

The three adults peered over the edge. Adam did too, but Todd’s body was gone.

‘Nobody’s here Adam,’ Miss Crazy said gently. ‘Just us.’

‘No, I’m not gonna fall for this. You removed his body. Or he got out and sneaked away. You can’t trick me like you did all those others…’ He glanced over to the machinery where Daisy hid. If he was going to escape, she had to be with him. ‘Daisy, you might as well come out.’

She didn’t come out.

He stepped around the machine to search.

Daisy was gone.

Adam groaned. Zombies blocked all paths. She couldn’t possibly have gone anywhere without them seeing her. ‘Daisy? Where are you?’ He turned back to Miss Crazy. ‘What have you done with her?’

‘There is no Daisy. At least… not here. Not in this plane of reality.’

Adam shook his head and searched further behind the machine. He figured she was probably too scared to step out willingly.

‘Think, Adam. You got sick. Do you remember that?’

‘Yes. I was sick for weeks. But I got better.’

‘No you didn’t, Adam. You didn’t get better.’

‘How the hell would you know?’

The next words she spoke chilled him to the bone.

’You died, Adam...’

The words echoed through Adam’s mind and his legs become weak. He couldn’t speak at first and dread filled his body. ‘No... no, that’s not true. How can that be true? I’m standing here now. I’m flesh and blood, look!’ He slapped himself on the chest a few times.

‘Yes. Your body, all though appearing physical to us, can be hurt, just like you could when you were alive…’

Adam caressed his injured arm. He had complete feeling in it again and there was no pain. It was like he had never injured it to begin with.

‘This world you see around you - it exists on another plane of existence. Do you know what I mean by that, Adam?’

’No.’

’It’s like a shadow of the real world. It looks the same, in fact everything in it is the same, the towns, the cities, the objects you left behind. Life on each plane continues to exist without the knowledge of the other. People on Earth talk about the spirit world. I guess you could say that’s us, except here, we are more physical than spiritual.’

Don nodded. ‘When you died, you crossed over.’

‘You’re nuts!’

‘It’s true.’ Miss Crazy smiled. ‘But when you first cross over, you don’t realise you’re dead. The dead never do. They conjure up their own reality to go with the world they find themselves in. Most of it’s an illusion.’

‘What, so I drove here in an imaginary car?’ Adam nearly laughed.

‘No!’ She laughed. ’You can’t do anything beyond your own strength. That car was real. It was there when you passed on and remained there after. Everything that was there when you died, is here now. Just not the living. You unconsciously add your own wants and needs to your world. You add the people, you add things that only you can see. That’s the illusion. You can see it, touch it and hear it. It can be Heaven or Hell. You can believe good things or you can believe bad things. Whatever you want, you have it.’

‘So you’re saying I just conjured up these zombies?’ He stared, still not able to grasp how it could be possible.

‘You willed them into existence. You can get rid of them just as easily. Go on. Try it.’

It seemed crazy. Adam was about to flag it all away as a load of crap, but something made him try. He turned his eyes towards the zombies and closed them. He wished - with all his might, they would be gone. Ludicrous, he thought to himself. But when he opened his eyes, all he could see was an empty stairwell. The zombies had vanished.

‘Are they still there?’

There was no way Miss Crazy could pull off a trick like that. If they had walked out, he would have heard them. They couldn’t have just vanished into thin air. ‘No...’ he breathed, ‘they’re gone.’

‘Exactly. Your conscious mind may have never wanted them there, but your subconscious conjured them up. That’s the way it often works and in a quirky way it’s appropriate. Because if you lived life as a bad person - with evil thoughts, then the afterlife can be a horrible place. But if you are a good person, it can be a great place to be. We all have good and bad in us. The trick is keeping things in control.’

‘No!’ Adam shook his head. ‘It’s a trick. I don’t know how you did it, but it’s a trick. Constable Clements told me not to trust you.’ He peered around desperately. Where was he? Then a horrible thought came over him. What if the Constable had vanished, just like his friends.

‘Constable Clements doesn’t exist. He’s just someone else you conjured up in your mind.’

’That’s what you think!’ A man’s voice echoed through the room.

Miss Crazy froze. So did her two companions. It was quite clear to Adam that they too had heard the voice, the voice of the good policeman. He was real. He wasn’t a figment of Adam’s imagination.

Constable Clements stepped out from behind some machinery. In his hand was a shotgun and he aimed it in on the three adults.

Morgan gasped, ’Hochstetler!’

Adam blinked twice. He was Hochstetler? Of course he was. He was there to stop them. He was the man they feared.

‘Stand still,’ Clements ordered.

‘You know that gun can’t kill us, Hochstetler,’ said Morgan.

‘It can incapacitate you for a bit. Cause you excruciating pain and perhaps even wounds that won’t heal for a long time. And that’s all I want to do.’

‘You can’t take all three of us,’ Don growled.

‘Would you like to test that theory out?’

‘It’s too late, Hochstetler,’ Miss Crazy said. ‘We got to him first. He knows the truth now.’

‘Does he? Let’s ask him shall we? Adam, my boy. What’s the truth?’

‘I... I think they’re aliens.’ Adam looked at Miss Crazy and her two goons.

‘See?’ Hochstetler smirked. ‘He knows. I already told him the truth.’

Miss Crazy stared horrified at him, but it was Morgan that spoke up. ‘What bullshit have you been trying to feed the kid?’

‘I just told him the truth.’

‘What, that you were a cop?’

‘Any worse than pretending to be his school teachers?’

Adam stared at Hochstetler, still unable to believe it. All this time Hochstetler was only pretending to be a cop? It did explain why when Adam first met him, he was in plain clothes and didn’t have a pen and notebook on him.

Morgan turned to Adam. ‘At least we told you our real names. Try to think. Doesn’t any of what we just told you before ring true in your mind?’

Adam hesitated. He wanted to tell them he didn’t believe them, but something held him back.

‘Don’t trust them, Adam,’ Hochstetler insisted. ‘Don’t fall for any of it.’

‘Come on!’ Morgan glared at Hochstetler. ‘What have you been telling him? That we’re aliens? And how long are you going to be able to keep that charade up for?’

‘Adam.’ Miss Crazy looked directly at him. ‘You made those zombies disappear didn’t you? They’re gone, every single one of them. You made that happen, not us.’

‘Rubbish!’ Hochstetler said. ‘They created the illusion, Adam, not you.’

Mrs Crazy huffed. ‘Try something, Adam. Think in your mind what you really want most in the world right now. Will it into existence, right here in this room. Only you know what that is. If it appears, then you know it’s not us, right?’

‘Don’t listen to her. It’s another trick.’

Adam turned his eyes from Miss Crazy’s face to Hochstetler’s. They both looked at him with innocent expressions, but there was something in Hochstetler’s eyes Adam didn’t like – even more so than in Miss Crazy’s.

He turned to the middle of the room and closed his eyes. He willed the one thing he wanted most in his mind. He pictured it there, but didn’t really expect it would work. But when he opened his eyes, he saw it.

‘What do you see, Adam?’ Miss Crazy asked.

Adam felt goose bumps and tried to swallow, but his throat was dry. ‘My… my parents.’ They stood there calmly, smiling at him.

‘Hello, Adam,’ his father said.

‘We miss you so much,’ his mother added. ‘It broke our hearts when you died.’

‘We wish you could come back. But we know that’s not possible.’

‘I guess we never will get to take that family trip to Magic Mountain,’ his mother said sadly. ‘But that’s ok. Because you can go anywhere you like now.’

‘Mom…’ Adam felt tears welling up in his eyes. ‘Dad…’ He wanted to move forward and embrace them, but he knew they weren’t really there.

‘You’ll be fine,’ his father said, gently. ‘You take care now, alright?’

And they began to fade.

There was silence for a few seconds and then Miss Crazy spoke again. ‘You saw them, right?’

‘Yes.’

‘So you see? We couldn’t have possibly known what you wanted. It’s just like we told you. You’re controlling all this. We’re telling you the tru…’

Hochstetler interrupted. ‘Yes, it’s true that you’re dead. It’s true that you’re in the afterlife now, but these people only want to control you and use you. You know deep down they can’t be trusted.’

’We can’t be trusted?’ Don scoffed. ‘Adam, this man is evil. It’s him that wants to use you. We’re here to help you. That’s all we wanted to do.’

‘Believe us,’ Miss Crazy appealed. ’It’s like you said, if we really were that bad, we would have got you days ago. I tried to tell you the truth, the first day we spoke, but you couldn’t hear me. It seemed whenever I tried to tell you, your hearing went on you. It’s common for that to happen and for some, like you, it requires extraordinary events to occur before you are able to hear it. For others, it only requires that we somehow blend into their world they conjured to gain their trust, which is what we tried to do with you.’

Adam stared from Miss Crazy to Hochstetler again. Miss Crazy’s eyes appeared sad, as if she longed for Adam to believe her. Hochstetler’s seemed hard and piercing.

Adam turned to Hochstetler. ‘H… How do I know I can trust you?’

‘Because I’ve never tried to trick you. It wasn’t me posing as one of your teachers to gain your trust.’

‘You pretended to be a cop.’

‘But that’s all. I never made up crazy stories. All I did was stay at the police station, dress up in a uniform and give you a false name.’

‘And why did he do that, Adam?’ Miss Crazy asked. ‘He didn’t want you to find out who he really was and what sort of a person he was when he was alive. Have you ever heard of Rodney Hochstetler?’

‘No, I…’ Then he remembered what Drake had told him about the murderer who had been killed ten years ago. So if Drake told him that, it must have been something Adam had long forgotten about that his subconscious had dredged up for Drake to say. That’s if he could believe Miss Crazy’s claims, which Adam seriously started to consider. ‘Yes. I’ve heard of him.’ His face paled as he stared at the man, he had once believed was Constable Clements. ‘He killed a whole heap of people and the cops shot him when he tried to escape.’

‘That’s right.’ Miss Crazy nodded. ‘You’re looking at him now. And you can be assured he only has evil on his mind.’

’Give me a break!’ Hochstetler growled. ‘That’s bullshit; I’m not the same guy. I died five years ago of lung cancer. They’re trying to trick you again. Now, if I were you, I’d come along with me now and get the hell out of here. I’ll take you somewhere safe where you won’t have to worry about these three.’

‘Don’t trust him!’

Adam studied the man who pretended to be Constable Clements. ‘What about all the men you said you had here with you. Where are they?’

‘Dead!’ Hochstetler pointed to Miss Casey and her two companions. ‘They got to them first.’

’What crap!’ Don snarled.

Adam continued to stare Hochstetler in the eyes, looking for some clue that he told the truth. But then something occurred to him. Adam thought about the conversation he had with Hochstetler at the police station. ‘You seemed to know so much about what was going on. How could you have known those things when they were all in my mind?’

Hochstetler appeared stumped. Then it dawned on Adam: the truth. ’My journal. You must have read my journal. I remember finding it on my table one day and wondering how it got there. That means you must have been in my house snooping around!’

Adam suddenly saw menace appear in Hochstetler’s eyes. ’I’m right aren’t I? Which means you can’t be trusted. You’re the one that’s lying!’

Hochstetler’s grunted angrily. ‘Damn you kid! I’ll make you all pay!’

He fired his shotgun, causing an explosion that echoed throughout the factory. Don went hurtling back, crashing to the floor. The angry former homicidal maniac pointed his gun at Morgan and fired, but Morgan managed to shove the barrel of the shotgun aside just in time and the bullets ricocheted harmlessly off one of the vats.

‘Come on!’ Miss Crazy grabbed Adam’s arm. ‘Let’s go!’

She pulled him towards the staircase as Morgan struggled to overpower Hochstetler.

’I’ll get you kid!’ screamed Hochstetler. ’This place is gonna be hell for you!’

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