Who: Aria & Mona What: The girls throw down with a charger When: Z-Day Where: The prison Warnings: Violence, NPC death, zombie death
Aria was doing the best that she could. It was admittedly difficult trying to adjust to a zombie filled lifestyle. This wasn’t what she had planned at all when she left Rosewood. Her first taste of freedom and it was so short-lived that it barely counted. Aria was still plagued with the PTSD that Charlotte had left her saddled with after her time in The Dollhouse with the girls. Living in the prison brought a lot of that back and it was tearing at Aria’s soul.
She tried her best to find ways to cope. She was continuing her writing, albeit in a darker direction. Aria didn’t have the best imagination and her fiction tended to be mostly non-fiction. That meant that now her heroine had to face more darkness than she ever had before. That was saying something because the dark was where Aria lived. She might have escaped Rosewood but she realized that this life had plans for her that she couldn’t control.
The worst part of it all was that Mona was the closest thing she had to a friend from back home here. She and Mona were never close. That was more Hanna’s thing and had sort of almost become Spencer’s thing for half a second. Aria always felt Mona was weird, it didn’t matter which Mona she was dealing with. The fact that Mona had about a dozen different personalities never really made Aria want to hang out with her. Not until now anyway. Mona wasn’t Hanna but she was as close as she was going to get here.
It was still early in the day and Aria had the day off from her duties in housekeeping. She wrote another chapter in her book before closing the handwritten diary and hiding it behind a loose block in the floor. Aria had already caught Faye reading her writing a few times and it wasn’t a surprise. Her roommate didn’t seem to have many boundaries. It was the worst kind of roommate for a secret keeper like Aria.
Aria grabbed a cup of coffee on her way through the kitchen and on a whim grabbed a second one. She didn’t know how Mona took it so she guessed black and didn’t bother putting anything in it. That was how Aria preferred her own coffee.
A few minutes later, Aria found Mona in the engineering office surrounded by computers and radios and a bunch of other doohickeys and gadgets that Aria couldn’t identify.
“Hey,” Aria said as she held out the cup. “I brought you a coffee. Figured you could probably use it.”
Few people were as well suited for being pulled out of time and into something straight out of a horror movie than Mona Vanderwaal. Not that she was particularly suited for it physically but mentally, she was more than primed.
Although, surviving high school with someone like Alison DiLaurentis as Queen Bee had to count for something. Surely, no zombie could be too much worse than that bitch.
The people who were running operations in the prison had immediately identified her tech savvy and assigned her to a position within Engineering. Her primary focus was maintaining the network. Communications couldn’t have been more important in a situation such as this one.
It also may have afforded her an opportunity to spy which was definitely a perk. But so far, the majority of these people were too boring to spy on. There was too much confusion over the circumstances, too much concern about the zombies for any juicy secrets to surface but Mona was cautiously optimistic that as they inevitably adapted, things would get more interesting.
Speaking of interesting, she couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow in surprise as Aria, of all people, not only came to visit but brought her coffee. Her paranoia surfaced instantly as she couldn’t help but wonder if it wasn’t spiked with something. Perhaps even poison. But just as quickly, Mona was able to convince herself that this was more symptomatic of loneliness than an attempt on her life.
Aria had always had her friends surrounding her, parents that maybe cared a little too much, and even her very own Mr. Robinson. It would make sense then that she would seek out a sense of familiarity, even if said sense was Mona, a once sworn enemy. “Well aren’t you thoughtful,” Mona replied, forcing herself to sound chipper. It was how she dealt with a world that would never really understand let alone appreciate a girl like her: she plastered on a smile and did her best to seem pleasant.
Reaching forward, she graciously accepted the mug that was offered to her. Normally, she preferred any number of those overly sweet flavored creamers. But, it being the end of the world and all, she had quickly adapted to taking it plain while merely being thankful that rations at least included coffee to begin with. Taking a small sip, she then placed it on her desk next to the keyboard she’d been using to enter commands as she’d fine-tuned the alarm system. She had found some potentially critical bugs in the code and considering a potential zombie invasion was the worst possible timing to discover flaws, Mona had made it her priority to overhaul.
“Is that all that brings you to my little neck of the woods?” She asked curiously, still not entirely confident in Aria’s motives for visiting her of all people.
“More or less,” Aria said. “I don’t know. Besides Jason, you’re the closest thing I have to my friends back home.”
There was no reason to lie to Mona. She was too smart to not discern Aria’s true intention. She missed Hanna, she missed Spencer, and of course Emily too. Mona was as close as she was going to get to any of them. Mona was a lying psychopath but she had Hanna’s temperament and Spencer’s brains, and she was strong like Emily. Most of all, she was from Rosewood and had gone through that Dollhouse nightmare with them. Mona was never going to actually be one of them, even with a blonde wig on calling herself Alison. But she was the closest thing that Aria had to a friend from back home. That automatically made Aria want to give Mona more of a chance than she ever had before.
“It’s been awhile since I’ve been back to Rosewood. I haven’t been back since Mike’s graduation.”
Aria gave Mona an awkward smile. Mona and Mike had been an item for a hot minute and it had driven Aria insane to know that Mona had her hooks in her little brother but Mike could handle a lot more than Aria had ever given him credit for. In fact, Aria was almost a little sad that they hadn’t worked out. Mike could do a lot worse than Mona and probably would, knowing her little brother.
“How have you been?” Aria asked. “You’ve been away at school, right?” Aria had no idea that Mona was from a different point in the timeline than she was. Jason had accused her of marrying Ezra but Aria didn’t think she would ever do such a thing.
“Mm,” Mona said, her only acknowledgement of Jason. She didn’t really much to say on that subject, especially given the fact that he was so obviously less than thrilled to see her here. And while Mona had plenty to say on the subject of Mike, she did her very best to make sure that her face remained completely neutral. The small pang she still felt at the mention of his name was not reflected on her face but it was still there. He had meant so much to her. The first person who ever really looked right at her, instead of through her. And liked what he saw.
Of course, even if she had given away anything, it would have already been entirely eclipsed by the loaded question of just what Mona had been up to prior to her arrival here.
Somehow, despite everything that AD had done to Aria and her friends, Mona doubted that any of the Liars would understand much less support her own dollhouse she’d created. Spencer especially would probably take issue with the fact that her birth mother was one of said dolls. No, the girls were much happier believing in those fake arrests and thinking that Alex Drake was rotting away in a prison far away from the one she’d created for them in Rosewood.
“I’ve been...away.” Mona finally replied evasively, which wasn’t untrue. “It seems like I’m actually a bit farther ahead of you in the sequence of time. When all was said and done, I finally made good on a lifelong dream of living in France.” She smiled then, fond memories of the Forêt des Roses Fines Poupée--aka Rosewood Fine Dolls--flooding her momentarily.
“I was actually in Paris prior to happening upon this…place so as you might expect, it’s been somewhat of an adjustment for me.”
Which, was actually saying a lot. Mona was highly adaptable. Still, being pulled from her dream world with her dream boyfriend and her dream dollhouse while exacting her very real revenge was not something she was entirely thrilled about. Though the challenges being presented were kind of refreshing and it was growing on her daily.
“What about you?” She asked, shifting the conversation back to Aria as she fine-tuned the scope of her new infrared detection set up. “High school? College? Pre-Mrs. Ezra Fitz? Post? Do tell.”
“Post. Pre. I don’t know. That never happened,” Aria said, sounding far too defensive for her own comfort. She would never marry Ezra. What was with everyone trying to tell her that was her destiny. Aria was going to make her own destiny. It wasn’t anything against Ezra. She still appreciated the love she once had for him and he would always be special to her but that was her first love, not her last.
How ridiculous would it be if everyone married their high school sweetheart? It just wasn’t realistic. Everyone from Spencer and Toby to Hanna and Caleb were broken up by now and Aria thought that was totally normal and how things should probably be.
“The last thing I remember was sharing an apartment with Jason and working on my book, going to classes. I was living in Boston, going to BU and then suddenly I ended up here.”
Aria had liked Boston. It wasn’t too far from the seemingly idyllic Rosewood in Pennsylvania but far enough away that Aria felt like she had her own life. She liked the east coast and intended to stay despite an initial decision to maybe go to California. Liking Boston was part of the reason that she didn’t love the idea of running off to save the world with Jason. She loved him for wanting to but it wasn’t her destiny. But she was remaining resolute in that Ezra wasn’t her destiny either.
“I’m glad you made it to France though. Happy for you, I mean. That sounds great, Mona.” Aria gave her a small smile. She had some idea that Mona was a Francophile but didn’t dwell on anything that might make her think of A for too long.
Suddenly the radio that Mona was working with crackled to life so abruptly that Aria spilled some of her coffee on her skirt. Damn it. She had liked this skirt and it had taken some serious digging through raider’s supplies to find it. She frowned and tried to frantically wipe it away but stopped when she heard the voice coming through the radio.
“You little fuckers think you know everything because you can keep a little part of the internet running? You little fuckers don’t know anything.”
Aria frowned and met Mona’s eyes. “Turn it up!” she mouthed at Mona.
The voice on the radio went on a long coughing fit and then continued again once the coughing stopped. “I’ve been experimenting with them, the dead. Science is a miraculous thing, you know. It can create and it can destroy. So while you wasted time on this bullshit, I’ve been doing things you only dream about. You’re about to find out what real science looks like.”
“What the hell is that?” Aria demanded.
Mona’s impeccably groomed eyebrow arched up sharply as Aria made her disinterest and--disgust, perhaps?--at the idea of marrying her former teacher and paramour. It was kind of surprising considering how very much happy and very much married they were in the future. But, at the same time, she could easily appreciate the veritable butterfly effect that pulling people out of time would have.
But before she could really delve into the nuances of Aria’s present and Mona’s past and the differences therein, a crazed voice interrupted their girl talk, spouting even crazier things.
“Oh no,” She murmured, her eyes drawn to the set of computer screens in front of her that were suddenly lit up and flashing like a set of Christmas lights.
“No, no, no. No.”
Frantically, she keyed in a sequence of commands, taking all of her screens and overlaying them with the infrared hack she’d set up. In her infinite genius, Mona had figured out how to identify the undead by their distinct lack of brain waves. With humans and vampires, she could use heat sensing and EEG activity. There was a subtle difference in the former but the latter was consistent. She had coded the program to detect various heat signatures and identify the absence of brain waves. Whereas humans were outlined in red, and vampires in blue, the undead were identified by a green outline.
And right now? Every single screen staring back at her had green outlines. Multiple green outlines, per screen. And these weren’t just any zombies. Something was terribly, terribly wrong here. There were so many shapes and sizes, some of which seemed impossibly big.
Operating on instinct now, Mona’s palm slammed down on a large red button on the console, setting off a shrill alarm all over the prison.
“We’ve gotta go.” She said over her shoulder to Aria as she quickly got to her feet. On the wall was one of those Break Glass in Case of Fire things with an all-too-handy axe behind it. Raising her arm, she folded it and quickly slammed her elbow into the glass. A lightning bolt of pain shot from her elbow to wrist but Mona easily ignored it. She was used to pain and she’d gained control of the sensation long ago. It was the only way to survive the things that she had survived, and at such tender ages too.
Her hand clasped around the handle of the axe and she quickly jerked it free before turning back to face Aria.
“I don’t know what he did,” Mona shouted over the blaring sound of the alarm. “But the infected are here.” With that, she moved past her and out into the hallway, faltering as she bit her lower lip slightly and tried to figure out which way to go.
Mona could almost always be counted on to have the answers or at least a somewhat solid plan: right now, though? She had neither.
Mona’s panic was very palpable and Aria’s heart rate immediately spiked up. What was happening? She couldn’t articulate her confusion which left her with a jumbled anxious knot of questions rolling around in her mind. What was going on? Who was that guy on the radio? What were those things on the screen? Why was Mona freaking out? At this point, Aria had learned to be scared when Mona was scared. And sometimes, scared when Mona wasn’t scared because Mona always knew. Knowing was Mona’s thing and now she seemed panicked.
“What the hell is going on?” Aria finally managed to get out, having to shout over the sound of the alarm blaring in the prison.
It occurred to her to check her phone, humanity’s one great weapon, the ability to communicate. Primarily, she was interested in checking in with Jason to make sure that he was okay. Likely everyone was in their own state of panic with the alarm going off and as Mona said, the arrival of the infected. But instead she saw a net post that Alec had put up.
“Mona!” Aria elbowed Mona sharply and shoved her phone screen towards her face so that she could read Alec’s call to action. Suddenly Aria wished that she had an axe too or preferably a gun. She wasn’t really comfortable with the idea of weapons as she was sort of a pacifist. But she was perfectly willing to kill a zombie before she would let a zombie kill her.
Mona’s eyes scanned the message on the network, outlining the situation and their options. And while she was fully aware that there were multiple supernatural beings here that were more than capable of handling this type of invasion and she was merely human, she just couldn’t bring herself to hide from anyone, ever again.
Whether it was a zombie or a Charlotte or even an Alex, hiding from a bully never solved the problem. No, they had to be killed. Or, well, captured. Because that worked just as well and was actually more fun. She didn’t relish the fact that she’d taken a life but Mona didn’t regret it either.
People used to walk all over her and for too long, she would let them.
Now, no one steamrolled her. Not even the undead.
“Here,” Mona said, grabbing Aria by the elbow and dragging her over to a closet that used to be janitorial in nature but was now basically a cache for weapons. There were all kinds of things, long guns, bows, swords, etc.
Raising her eyes to meet the mirrored darkness of Aria’s, she leveled with her.
“I am going to go kill some zombies. If you want to join me, pick your poison and come along with me. Anything you can use to make a headshot.”
“But if you’re scared, then this would also be a really great place to hide. You’d have weapons just in case you needed them and I could come back for you when it’s all clear. It’s up to you, hon.”
The smart choice for Aria, who was ill equipped to deal with an apocalypse, was probably to stay in the closet as Mona suggested and hope that she wouldn’t need to use any of these weapons. And maybe if anyone else had suggested it, Aria would have given it more consideration. But a combination of worry for Jason and that word, hon, made Aria want to fight all the harder. She might have been a pacifist at heart but these were dark times. Mona and Charlotte had helped make Aria a fighter and now the zombies were going to take her the rest of the way there .
Aria quickly went through the contents of the closet and chose a small handgun. The shotgun had been tempting but Aria would have been knocked over by the force of it. She had no idea how to use a bow and the knives and swords required her to get far too close to the zombies in order to slay them. No, the glock was the perfect tiny weapon for a tiny person. Not that Mona was much bigger than Aria. She was tiny herself but Aria wasn’t surprised to find that Mona was prepared for this situation, or as prepared as anyone could possibly be.
She turned and gave Mona a very serious look. “Let’s go.”
Aria let Mona lead the way as it was also apparent that Mona knew the prison a lot better than Aria did. As usual, Mona was paying more attention than Aria, who was forever distracted by her own pursuits, did.
The closer they got to the front entrance, the louder the sounds were getting. “We’re not going to actually go outside?” Aria asked, trying to hide her fright. But it didn’t matter because she saw a giant zombie push his way inside and grab someone whose sheets Aria had washed numerous times. The zombie just grabbed him and ran fast and far, it took Aria and Mona a minute to catch up. The only thing that had stopped the charger was the wall that it was currently pounding the survivor’s head into. Aria tried to steady her hands enough to shoot the gun and she was able to but she couldn’t seem to hit the damn thing’s head.
“Hold still!” Aria yelled in frustration as the charger beat the man to death right in front of them.
Mona was pleased and gave Aria an approving smile when she agreed to come along. Charlotte was the one who always had carried on about how she had “made” Aria and the others by playing the A game with them and whereas Mona wasn’t really one to give herself pats on the back, she also couldn’t help but be somewhat impressed that all she had done as A herself wasn’t in vain.
Of course, her demeanor quickly changed with just one look at Frakenzombie. He was ridiculously tall and also incredibly wide and looked as though he himself had been beat within an inch of his life by another him. His bloodstained overalls were hanging from his shoulder by one strap and he was only wearing one shoe. He looked like the abominable snow man as a toddler or whatever if the abominable snow man had been both human and undead. “Who dressed you?!” Mona demanded dryly before she could stop herself, earning her a look from Aria. “Sorry.” She said just as quickly.
In a matter of minutes, the charger had turned the body it held in its hand into an unmoving bloody pulp which he dropped unceremoniously to the floor. His large body rushed forward, arm reaching for Aria and thinking quickly, Mona sprung into action, bringing the axe’s blade down directly on its grossly greenish wrist. Its fingers had just barely brushed the material of Aria’s shirt but now the hand fell to the floor as the zombie continued rushing forward past them as if it was unable to stop itself.
“Now, Aria!” Mona yelled as she kicked the disembodied hand away from them.
“SHOOT HIM IN THE BACK OF THE HEAD BEFORE HE TURNS AROUND!”
Aria raised her gun feeling startled and confused. For some reason she was thinking about Shana again. She was always thinking about Shana lately. Aria had thought she had scrubbed the former nemesis from her psyche but she always popped up when Aria thought about death. And just like with Shana, Aria knew that she had to kill someone in order to save someone. The charger was going to kill her or Mona or someone else next and Aria had to stop it. She had no choice. She couldn’t even think.
The gun exploded in Aria’s hand. The charger screamed a low pitched roar before it sank down to the floor, landing on it’s oversized arm. It was dead, it was dead and the alarms were blaring and Aria had a gun in her hand.
When Charlotte would pull the alarm, they all had to return to their bedrooms or else they would pay the price. Aria badly wanted to return to her bedroom. Her old high school bedroom didn’t even exist anymore. After Mike had graduated, her parents had sold the house and moved once again. Aria didn’t think she would miss it but that jarring sound pierced her soul and she badly wanted to retreat to a childhood place where she almost felt safe.
“I can’t,” Aria said. “I can’t.”
Aria shook her head back and forth, taking a few steps backwards and away from the dead charger, away from Mona. The more things changed, the more they stayed the same. All of the girls, including Mona, had suffered PTSD but somehow Aria had more visible hang ups and she wanted to hate herself but she was too scared for it. So she turned around and ran and left Mona there by herself. Later on, she would feel bad about it, about herself and her own inability to move on from the past. But that was a problem for another day because for now all Aria wanted to do was run and hide.