He struggled in the chains, like a wild animal caught in a trap that the viewers of discovery channel would have known was doomed. He looked nothing like Grayson. Grayson would have calmly sat up and stalled while he poured acids over the chains and escaped. But this wasn't Grayson, this wasn't the man who had started the legacy, taught me how to be a better robin. So I managed to squash any feelings of remorse as I pulled the trigger and he went limp. Tim looked up from curled up in the corner and started bawling again. "we- we could of found a c-cure" he gasped between sobs. I ignored him and turned to Damian. He looked at me as if was one if the psychopaths he worked so hard to stop. "Don't you think for a second I'm not bringing him back" I growled and poked the rifle into his Kevlar. "I've died too, remember?" his glare thickened. I turned away and said to nobody "we better go find the girls
It was supposed to be a simple "family" gathering. It had been over a year since father disappeared, and Grayson had made everyone come home for father's birthday. So here's how it went; I was being kicked under the table by Steph, while drake was starring daggers at me, while the Asian girl next to him watched me curiously. I scrawled at them both. Barbara and Grayson were sitting at the ends of the table and dick stood up holding his glass. Before he spoke, he gave me a glare that clearly said Ibehave or I'll make you too sit next to each other /I I glared back telling him drake would already be dead if he did that. Grayson ignored me and smiled that stupid grin again. "as you all know, were here for Bruce-" he paused and stopped to look at everyone individually, trying to hide the fact his eyes lingered for just a second on the empty chair. He opened his mouth to speak again; when the ceiling collapsed all hell broke loose.
If we hadn't been a family full of superheroes, we would all be dead. The grand oak table collapsed into splinters under the ceiling and Grayson dove for Barbara and headed towards the main hallway. The rest of us stayed put. All my senses were open; I was just waiting for something to attack. Ceilings that strong didn't just collapse like that. I felt naked for a moment, no costume or weapons. Grayson was gone and Steph was on the other side with the asshole and Cassandra. The giant oak door began to shake and drake snapped his head from starring like an idiot up the gaping hole, more than thirty feet up. Like Any regular person would risk jumping from that height. It left two chances, their goal was to kill us, or they knew our secret and knew we would move. The door splintered and burst inwards.
I reached for my cape to shield myself, but all I found was the stupid fabric of the tux Grayson had made me wear. I squeezed my eyes shut and shielded myself with my arms. I felt the thin shards of stained glass make tiny cuts along my sleeves and arms. The intruders were not a cult of assassins, or any kind of enemy we had fought before. They looked just like normal people, until you saw their eyes. They were empty, nothing in them, no kind of warmth, no hatred, just bloodthirsty meat sacks. I heard drake yell out "I saw this in a movie once!" he yelled as he backed up towards the cave. "I didn't like it!" he ducked behind the clock and tossed a few smoke bombs into the hall. I felt a calloused hand grab my arm and drag me backwards through the fog. The solid steel door clicked its ten bolt lock behind me and I stood up. Grayson was standing there, in uniform and everything. Drake and Cassandra were both midway through changing. Steph tossed mine at my face and pulled on her boots. Grayson pulled the cowl over his head and looked at me solemnly, "get dressed Damian" he said and turned back to oracle. "What's going on?" he asked her, but instead of answering she pulled up dozens of news feed networks on the giant monitor. The voices of news reporters was jumbled together so it was near impossible to pick out individual voices, but one word kept popping out; zombies.
I almost laughed. I closed my eyes and tried to wake up. When that didn't work I glared at Grayson and pretended to laugh. "Ha-ha, zombies, very funny" I said sarcastically. He didn't laugh. "Computer, secure the room" he said in a dead serious voice. The already ten inch steel door had another layer of two foot thick solid steel roll over it, and clicks of any kind of escape in the entire cave could be heard locking down. I didn't ask any more questions, no one would ever go this far for a joke. My boots were on and I pulled on a second belt, just in case. I knew we were going out, even in the case of zombies, the city still needed us. Steph got on her motorcycle and drake got on the one he had arrived in. Cassandra looked at me and I nodded, then she climbed on my spare. I started towards mine when Grayson grabbed my arm. "No, you're with me" he said in the annoying no-nonsense voice that I knew I shouldn't argue. So without anymore words, soon the five of us were on the move. The three of them air locked the filters in their helmets and Grayson sealed the cabin. "Why did you do that?" I asked as the car revved in front of the cycles. "Precaution" he answered blankly. I soon got my answer the second we were outside. "Computer, take an air sample please" Grayson said in that scary voice that meant he was not going to be cracking jokes tonight. I didn't like it. We saw more of the zombie people walking down the street, they turned to look at us, but by the time they figured out we were targets we were a mile away. "Ok Grayson, I want to know what's going on here and I want to know now" I said sternly and crossed my arms. "you heard the news," he said blandly "I'm going to analyze the air quality when we get to Titan's tower, and yes that is where we are going, so that if is spread through air, we can warn Any one in there to keep the airlock on."
The rest of the ride happened in silence, complete terrified silence. The comm. hooked up to the bikes, but no sound was made other than the quiet breathing and occasional awkward cough. Eventually the silence was broken, but it was by Barbara coming from the cave. "All is good here," she started "but almost every news feed has been cut and the street cameras basically just look like the people are walking around in a daze, any clue to what's going on?"
