Romeo II: Massacre In Verona

My housemate and I were going shopping and were just talking about the Dogtanian I just got. How close to the original story (sans main character's promiscuous behaviour which wouldn't fit into a children's cartoon) the cartoon is.

My housemate said: "Yeah, but you can't really change the story on these classic stories."
Me: "Oh yeah? Like little mermaid where she lives at the end? Besides, how can you have a Hollywood sequel if the main character dies at the end?"
Housemate: "Right. Like Passion of Christ II?"
Me: "Exactly! A Hollywood producer would be like 'wait wait wait! Romeo can't die at the end. That's too depressing. Besides we have already started to make the sequel - Romeo II: Massacre in Verona.' So how do Romeo survive to the second part if he dies? ...unless he turns into a zombie!"

And that conversation earlier today was basically the base idea for this story:

Chapter 1

This journey begins where Romeo's and Juliet's end. You all remember a story about Romeo and his fair Juliet?

When Romeo was bitten by a zombie and he was placed in crypt, Juliet couldn't bear life without him. She surrendered to a Zombie attack, got bitten and sealed herself in the same catacomb as her beloved Romeo. But Juliet did not know Apothecary had already given his last antidote to Romeo. Antidote had knocked Romeo out, rendering him lifeless on the outside. But inside a battle was brewing. It lasted for hours on end.

The remedy finally worked and Romeo began to feel once again. Gasping air as he jumped from his grave just in time to see Juliet turn. Trapped in the crypt and armed only with his trusted dagger he knew this won't end well. "Juliet, my love. Fight against the turning. I try to find a way out!" Romeo shouted trying to unhinge the gate at the crypt entrance. "I'm afraid I cannot. I feel ... it has already... takeeehn my ... ... braaaaaaiiinnnnssshh..."

Trapped inside with no escape Romeo laments. But the time is running thin. Romeo quickly turns his mind and decides he must kill his beloved Juliet. A struggle ensues. Zombies are slow, but Juliet is still in the middle of turning, making her even less hasty. Romeo, holding his tears, slings himself behind Juliet and with a swift move of a blade decapitates her.

Or so he thought. A dagger may cut flesh, but bones are another matter all together. Using both hands Romeo must pull harder he has ever pulled. Romeo holds his lover's head in his hand, staring into the empty eyes. "Don't you even think about saying it!" he hears from the darkness. Recognizing the voice he shouts, "Hamlet, my good friend! How did you ever find me?"

"No time for that now. Back up a tad, I'll shoot the lock." Both men, running upstairs. One handing arms to the other. Hamlet looked grim. "My parents have been bitten. We have very little time. We must find Desdemona." He barely blinked when they came to the light from the catacombs right into the arms of a zombie. *bang bang* he fired his pistol, without missing a step. "But what good is Desdemona to us?" Romeo asks. "She is the one who gave the antidote to Apothecary. She is one of the three witches who know how to brew it. But alas, MacBeth is behind all this. He has killed the other two witches after gaining the secret of the potion. And now he wants to kill her, for then MacBeth is the only one with the antidote."

"We need to get more help. Hamlet, lets go to the Castle of Elsinore and see if we can gather more gallant companions."

In the castle of his father Hamlet sees Ophelia staggering towards him. "Zombie or not zombie, that is the question." says Hamlet. "Wether 'tis nobler without the mind to suffer, or to release this haunted soul. To die, to sleep; no more, and by a sleep to say we end the heart-ache and the craving that her decaying flesh is heir to."

"Stop blabbering, Hamlet! We got company!" Romeo shouts. Zombies pour into the hall. Romeo takes a Beretta and releases the fury. Zombie after Zombie they fall, until Romeo's Beretta cries *click click click* "Yo, Hamlet! I need to reload! Can you start shooting now?!"

"'Tis a consumption, devouring she wish'd. To die, to sleep; in that sleep what dreams may come when I have shuffled off her mortal coil. For I must give us pause, there's the respect that makes calamity of so long life." goes Hamlet on and on, unaware of his surroundings. For only Ophelia is filling Hamlet's universe now..

Hamlet stares in the eyes of his beloved. Ophelia still staggering towards Hamlet raises her arms as to hold him, embrace him. "Graaaaaaa! Brrraaiiinnssshh." she says. *Kabloom!* Sound like thousand thunders when Hamlet pulls the trigger of his shotgun. "Not Zombie." he says as Ophelia's headless corpse falls to the ground.

"Come on Hamlet," shouts Romeo, just finishing reloading his Beretta. "We must get to Desdemona before MacBeth! We need her to make the antidote before your parents are all turned into Zombies!"

Romeo leaps up and tries to run towards Hamlet, who is standing by the gate. One, thought dead, but yet alive - undead - grips Romeo's ankle, knocking him down. "Escape my friend! Should I remain in this world, I shall see you under the bridge leading to Verona!" Hamlet vanishes through the gate after a short pause, a tear and a reluctant nod.

All seems lost for poor Romeo. Zombie holding his leg, unable to move, more coming in. Suddenly, a large blast, flying shrapnel and limbs. A figure in the darkness and smoke. "Richie! How on earth did you get here?" Romeo feels hope rising its head. "I was visiting Claudius and Gertrude, but they are in grave danger. They have been fallen under the bite. I gave some herbs to slow the change, but we must be hasty. Time marches on." With this unforeseen help Romeo is finally outside the castle, heading for the bridge.

"Wait here, I'll go and see if the coast is clear." says Romeo.

Romeo rendezvous with Hamlet under a bridge. Romeo shouts "Hamlet, you made it alive!" But Hamlet was of the grim sort. "And why not death, rather than living torment?" he asks. "To die is to be banish'd from myself; and Ophelia is myself. Banish'd from her vessel, banished from this world."

"But I need you now, Hamlet!" Romeo cries "What fight is fight, if Hamlet be not by? What slaughter is slaughter if zombies be not seen? Unless it is to think they are near. Feeding upon the shadows of our path." Romeo pauses for a moment, only to continue "But I have managed to even the score." Romeo points to the shadows in the shrubbery. "I found Richie, who knows where Desdemona is."

"I see you came not alone. To arms, my friends. We have trapped ourselves under this bridge, and I'm afraid the only way out is now taken over by the Zombies." Hamlet shrieks! "Dagnabbit! I'm all out! A hand-grenade, a hand-grenade. My kingdom for a hand-grenade!", Richie shouts. "There you go, mate." Hamlet replies tossing one. Another huge explosion, and the way has been cleared.

"So how about that kingdom, Richie?" Hamlet asks while they run over the bridge.

...perhaps I'll post the second chapter if I decide to continue with this... Most likely not... Out of ideas now. Perhaps they meet Rosencrantz and Guildenstern on the way, who turn into Zombies and eat each others brains and they have a link between each other. So they see what the other one sees or something.