Author's Note: This was an AU that I was inspired to do by that episode of The Batman show from 2005ish. Hope you guys enjoy!
The 'zombie outbreak', began two days ago, and so far it's been hellish. So far it is contained in Gotham, which isn't too hard since it's a group of islands. However, as human nature ensures, there is mass chaos. People riot in the streets across the country. Scratch that, across the globe there is rioting.
However, the rioting that is occurring in any particular spot isn't nearly as bad as that occurring in Gotham. As soon as news started spreading that a zombie like disease had broken out in Midtown, both Uptown and Downtown began rioting.
They flooded the streets in large numbers storming angrily towards the hospital for not releasing any information on the disease. They even had to get a SWAT team down at the hospital, to prevent the rioters from harming any doctors or nurses.
Then came the whole phase where people started gathering supplies. They began looting convenience stores, supermarkets, some even breaking into weapon shops. That's when Bruce had truly had enough. He ordered the Batfamily out on the streets, each protecting a certain area of the city.
However, that's when he first saw it. The zombie outbreak was no longer an isolated situation. It had spread. The man in question was extremely pale with a tinge of gray with a bleeding spot on his neck. His mouth dripping saliva, and judging from the blood on and around his mouth, he's already bit someone else.
The zombie was walking towards a large crowd of people, without intervention, a large number of them would be infected.
Bruce made his move. He dove off of the rooftop towards the zombie, tackling it to the ground. He was careful, making sure to avoid sharing any bodily fluids, as the disease is most likely transferred that way.
The zombie got up from the ground, and screeched incomprehensible words at Bruce. Bruce took out a batarang, and went in for the attack. The zombie charged at him, and he dove for the ground, slicing at the zombie's leg.
Once he saw that he got a blood sample on his batarang, he took out a test tube and let the blood drip into it. He capped the tube, and looked back towards the zombie. And it looked back at him. It's eyes completely black, void of all emotions, only feral hunger.
The zombie charged at Bruce again. Bruce dropped a pellet, which dispersed a gas. Bruce put his breathing mask on. However, the gas that should've knocked the zombied out, didn't affect it at all. The zombie continued charging. Bruce unready for the attack, was knocked back. He fell to the ground, but quickly regained his footing.
The zombie charged again, however, this time Bruce was prepared. The zombie ran towards Bruce, who flipped over the man with ease. The man turned around and prepared to charge again. However, before he could, Bruce's fist collided with his face.
The zombie like man fell to the ground, and Bruce thought the fight was over. He turned to walk away, but when he heard a noise behind him, he looked to see the man standing up again. He ran for Bruce, swiping at Bruce with feral rage.
Bruce easily parried the attacks, however the man was relentless. He kept swiping at Bruce, quickly. Finally, Bruce caught his arm as he attacked. Using his attackers arm, he flung the man over his shoulder into a large glass window.
The man looked like he might actually stay down. His right arm was broken in more than one place, the bone protruding from the skin. Bruce felt bad for the man, it wasn't his fault that he got infected. He walked over to the man and began tying him up.
MIdway through tying him up, the man woke back up. His face snapped towards Bruce, who narrowly moved his head back in time. Then something unexpected happened. The man began forcing his arms against the wire binding him. As more and more pressure was applied, the wire finally snapped.
Given any other situation, everyone would have laughed at the expression Bruce wore. A mix of shock and a tiny bit of fear. His cable which is reinforced titanium, shouldn't be able to be broken by any human.
The zombie stood up, and began forcing his bones back into place. He looked at Bruce like he hadn't just fought him. Like the previous battle had no affect on him at all.
Bruce knew that the battle wasn't worth it. No matter what he did the man would just keep getting back up and attacking. He pulled out his grappling hook and fired it into the air. It latched onto a tall building, and he got pulled off into the night.
Bruce pressed his hand to his ear, activating his comm. "Batman to Batfamily, new objective. The virus has spread. You're job is to now evacuate the city. If you see any of the infected, do NOT engage. Threats should be viewed as highly dangerous. Batman out."
Bruce stood atop the building, overlooking the city. Usually, from up in the sky, the city would look… peaceful. However, now, Bruce could see the terror occurring across the city. Fires raging in the streets. Crowds of people shouting at police officers. Chaos.
Even though he wanted to help, he knew the best thing to do was to examine the blood sample that he got from one of the infected. He pressed the beacon on his belt, calling the Batmobile to his location. When it got within his line of vision, he dove of the building, landing in the Batmobile.
He stepped on the pedal, thrusting the car forward at 230 miles per hour. Swerving through the streets, avoiding any civilians that lurked there. He did a hard right, narrowly avoiding hitting a cop car.
He finally made it to the Batcave. The car slowed to a stop, and he jumped out of the car. He walked over to the computer and sat down in the chair. He took the tube containing the blood sample out of his belt and inserted it in a slot for a forensic analysis.
He waited patiently for the analysis to complete. It slowly analyzed the blood sample that he got. Slowly. Slowly.
That was two days ago. Nobody has heard from Bruce since the message he sent to them. He locked down the Batcave and Manor once he got back, using codes that reign supreme to any codes anyone else has.
Fortyeight hours ago, only about 1% of Gotham was infected. That number had increased to about 50% of Gotham's population.
The Batfamily has been held up in Oracle's clocktower, taking turns on supply runs. During their supply runs, they also drop off food and supplies to local refugees.
Horrible events really do bring out the best to people. Gang leaders start refugee camps caring for their members and member's families. They protect their own. They have the second largest camps. The largest are run by the government. They have the most complex way to get into them. You are thoroughly checked, from head to toe, to make sure that you aren't infected. Anyone who is infected or shows some of the signs of being infected, are left on the streets to their own devices.
The Batfamily sit around a table in the clocktower. It isn't the largest living space, though they are still grateful that they have any place safe enough to stay. There are two bedrooms at the clocktower. There are five of them; Dick, Tim, Jason, Barbara, Stephanie, and Cassandra. However, Jason goes by his own rules, and often leaves middle of the night.
Dick begins speaking, "So what are we going to do? We still haven't heard from Bruce or Alfred, and the cave and manor is locked down."
"I don't see why we can't just break into the manor, it's not like I haven't done it before," Jason points out.
"You can't break into it when it's on lockdown mode. On lockdown mode it can keep Superman out," Tim points out.
"I can try hacking the security system," Barbara offers.
"Too risky, you helped design the security system, along with Bruce and Lucius. It's designed to know what you're trying to do. Plus, it could send a virus to your computers, and that would not be good," Dick counters.
"Why don't we call another hero to check on him. Wally could vibrate through the walls of the Batcave," Jason offers.
"Too risky," Tim says like it's self explanatory.
"What do you mean it's too risky, he's the fucking Flash!" Jason shouts at him.
"Imagine Wally gets bit by a zombie somehow, would you like to face a zombified speedster?" Tim asks.
"Well I don't see you coming up with any brilliant ideas!" Jason shouts at him as he stands from his seat.
Tim stands as well, shouting back, "Yeah, because I trust Bruce's judgement. If he locked himself in there, he did it for a reason!"
Jason laughs, wiping a nonexistent tear for effect, "That's funny. Trust and Bruce are not usually words that are used in the same sentence, unless you're talking about how HE trusts NO ONE!"
Dick stands up and steps in between Jason and Tim. "Stop! Arguing isn't going to help us." Both Tim and Jason become less tense and begin relaxing.
"Dick is right," Barbara agrees.
"Of course I am," he responds smirking. Barbara punches his arm playfully. "Ow." He says grabbing his arm in mock pain.
"Anyway, I agree with Tim, for now we just have to believe that Bruce locked himself in there for a reason," Barbara announces.
"Okay, so say he did lock himself in there for a reason. Not only did he not tell us the reason, but he left us out here to die. Plus, he hasn't made any attempt to contact us," Jason points out.
"Are we so sure that he hasn't tried to make contact?" Stephanie asks. Everyone looks at her surprised, since so far she hasn't expressed her opinion. "Maybe he just hasn't made it obvious. Or maybe he contacted the Justice League."
"That is a possibility," Dick concludes. "I'll get in touch with Wally to hear if they've heard from him, Babs see if there are any unusual broadcasts that could've been from him." Barbara nods, and he walks out of the room. As he leaves, she wheels herself out of the room and over to her main control station.
Jason smiles deviously, "Okay, now that mommy and daddy have left the room, let's talk the real options. Bruce is obviously screwing us over."
"No." Cassandra replies.
"Okay…"
"But, Dick is… lying. He not telling us something," She tells them softly.
"So Dickhead knows something that we don't. I'll go beat it out of him," Jason announces, smiling at the thought.
"As entertaining as your fights get, I agree with what Dick said earlier, we can't fight during this. We need to remain focused on the ask at hand, not on beating each other up," Tim declares. "That being said, what Dick doesn't know can't hurt him, so I say we swing by Wayne Manor tonight," Tim whispers to the group around him, making sure neither Dick nor Barbara would hear him.
Jason smiles a delicious grin. "I knew that I didn't completely hate you, replacement."
"You know what I think we should check Jason for any signs of infection, he's acting too nice," Tim says sarcastically as he smirks.
"Shut the fuck up before I put a bullet between your eyes," Jason tells him angrily reaching for his holster.
"No threatening Timmy, Jason," Dick says as he reenters the room. "I talked to Wally, he heard from Bruce the day he locked down. He said that Bruce said he was 'going off the grid'," Dick says adding air quotes around 'going off the grid'.
Barbara wheels into the room, "I haven't found anything unusual, that would suggest that there is something from Bruce."
"Damn," Jason responds sarcastically with a snap of the fingers.
Barbara rolls her eyes, but continues speaking, "However, considering the government is probably observing the radio as well, he would be extremely careful when sending out a signal.
"Agreed," Tim says.
"I think that Bruce is just being a dick," Jason begins. Then he smirks, "No offense," he replies looking at Dick.
Dick clearly wants to reply, but opts to just rolling his eyes over dramatically. "Anyway, we are running low on supplies, I was thinking we could do a supply run in an hour. I was thinking Tim and I could go."
"You ALWAYS go!" Jason complains.
"What are you five?" Dick snaps back.
"Like you can talk. 'Oh look at me I'm Dick Grayson, EVERYONE loves me! I'm over affectionate and when I don't get my way I give puppy dog eyes'," Jason mocks.
"At least I have affection!"
"That doesn't make any fucking sense!"
"You don't need to curse after everything you say! 'Hey look at me I'm Jason Todd, I'm a silent badass. Everything in this life pisses me off, so I scream fuck and shoot things!' How'd you like that?" Dick asks smirking.
"This isn't gonna end well," Stephanie whispers into Tim's ear.
"No it isn't, but that doesn't make it any less funny," He responds at the same volume.
"You think you're soooooo funny, don't you?" Jason asks.
"It's way better than the jokes you come up with! I mean we get it, my name also means penis!"
"You're just pissed that even though your name means penis, you barely have one," Jason says with a delicious grin.
"I don't have a small penis if that's what you're implying! Just ask Barbara!" Dick screams motioning towards his longtime girlfriend, who face is bright red. Either from embarrassment or anger. However, judging by how she looks ready to kill him, it probably anger.
"Oh yeah, well you're stupid!" Jason spits at Dick.
"NO, YOU'RE stupid!" Dick shouts back.
Jason's face boils with rage. He dives over the table tackling Dick onto the ground. He raises his hand to punch Dick in the face, but before his fist smashes down, his hand is grabbed. He turns his head to see Cassandra holding his arm in place. "No fight," She commands.
He wants to argue or disobey, but he knows better than to get on Cass's bad side. The last time he did, he had to explain why the bookshelf was smashed. "Fine," he replies, his muscles becoming less tense.
"Ha you're afraid of Cass," Dick says still on the floor.
"LIke you're not?" Jason responds quickly.
Dick eyes Cass, then looks back at Jason. "Good point." Dick gets off the ground, and sits down in his seat.
Barbara looks at the two of them and sighs, "You know, Jason could probably use the space. I say he goes on the next supply run." Jason smirks at his victory. "However, someone should go with him to watch him."
"I'll do it," Tim says standing up from his seat.
"No I'll do it,' Dick says, also standing from his chair.
Barbara puts her hand to her face and begins massaging her temple. "Dick, it would probably be best if you and Jason didn't go out to get the supplies together. Tim… You're sure?" Barbara asks.
"Yeah I…" Tim begins.
Before Tim can finish his thought Dick cuts him off, "Jason always tries to kill you!"
"That's ancient history, me and the replacement…" He clears his throat, "I mean Tim get along great now," Jason tells him.
"Just five minutes ago I heard you threatening to kill him!" Dick shouts, clearly frustrated.
"Just a little anxiety," Jason assures, "I'm not used to being cooped up this long."
Dick lets a loud and long, exaggerated sigh, "Fine. But if you hurt or kill Timmy, I will…"
"You'll what? Kill me? You wouldn't have the balls," Jason says with a smirk. He's silent for a second as Dick glares daggers at him. "Not that I would kill Tim. Not anymore anyway. Me and him are cool now," Jason says, pulling Tim closer by the neck for good measure. He keeps his arm wrapped around the younger man's neck as Tim fakes a smile, that he hopes Dick won't notice is forced.
Dick's posture relaxes. "Okay, whatever." Dick begins walking off.
"The hell you going?" Jason shouts after him.
"I'm tired. I'm going to go rest!" Dick shouts back.
"K, have fun!" Jason shouts back even louder. Jason walks over to the couch and falls into it. He shuts his eyes, "Wake me up when it's time to leave.
About forty five minutes later, Jason feels someone shaking him gently. "Not now Alfie." When the shaking doesn't stop he says louder, "Quit it Alfred, I don't want to go to school today!"
He hears a giggling and opens his eyes, to see Stephanie looking down at him as she shakes him. "Alfred?" she asks.
"Mention this to anyone, and I will kill you," he threatens.
"And then I'd have to kill you," Tim tells Jason with a smile, from the archway. "Now c'mon, get your ass up."
"Ohhh, I'm gonna tell Dickhead you cursed!" Jason says in a mocking tone.
"Whatever, we are leaving in five," Tim says turning away to get his bo staff. Stephanie stands up and walks over to Tim.
Jason sits up from his laying position on the couch. He reaches over to the coffee table next to him and grabs his helmet off of the table. He places the helmet onto his head, and presses the button on the side, locking the helmet to his armor.
He stands from his seat and walks over to Tim. "Ready," he affirms.
"Good, let's go," Tim declares. They walk up the stairs to get to the top floor of the Clocktower, a little balcony, that is filled with computers. Tim opens the latch on the ceiling, and climbs out.
It's been two days since Tim has been out in Gotham's polluted air. And to be honest, he's not sure what he was missing. The air smells of smog, even though all power plants and factories haven't been running in over forty eight hours.
They look out into the Gotham skyline. It's unusual. The sky is always lit with bright colors from all the buildings and skyscrapers. However, tonight, the sky is pitch black.
The supply run has to be quick. Extremely quick. If they take too long, then they won't be able to visit the Manor without attracting unwanted attention from Dick and Barbara.
They begin their trek, jumping off of the clocktower and landing on a different building. Running on that building until that one comes to the end and they jump onto a new one.
There first stop is Gotham General. It was one of the largest refugee camps until the government came in. People started leaving Gotham General for an area where they could actually be protected by people with guns. Now though, the hospital is a surplus of supplies for the Bats. They have all necessary medical supplies, plus they can raid the cafeteria for 'food'.
When they reach the hospital, they are surprised. It's quiet. Unusually quiet. Usually, it is somewhat quiet, but there is usually at least two families hiding inside. They find none.
"I don't like this," TIm declares.
"Neither do I," Jason says pulling one of his guns out of the holster.
They continue walking down the hallway towards the hospital's cafeteria. When they get to the double doors, Tim cautiously reaches to push the door open. Before he can though, Jason kicks the doors wide open, causing a loud noise in the silent building. Tim closes his eyes and sighs deeply.
When he opens his eyes, Jason is already inside raiding the place for food. He sees Jason grab something and eat it, but he can't tell what. He can tell that it isn't cooked though. Jason doesn't seem to notice that fact, nor does he seem like he would care.
After they are finished grabbing food, Jason stuffs it in a bag, and shoves it in a closet. "On our way back from the Manor we'll pick it up," he reasons to Tim. Tim nods in agreement, and they are back in the hallway again, running for the roof.
When they reach the top of the staircase, they hear something not good. Jason fingers his gun's trigger, and Tim pulls out his bo staff.
Jason puts up his fingers. One. Two. Three. Him and Tim share a quick glance, and Jason knocks down the door. He sees five infected. 'How the hell had I not seen them,' Jason thinks to himself.
Although almost everyone had been against it initially, they had agreed that if it's life or death Jason is allowed to use his guns. Sure Jason stretches the definition of 'Life and Death,' but he's sure Dick will be fine with it since he's protecting Tim.
He aims the gun and pulls the trigger. One shot fired. The infected has a hole in between his eyes now. He fires a second shot. Another infected gets a bullet in the heart. He usually likes to keep distance between himself and them, though he doesn't want to attract more attention, so he runs over to the remaining. He is wearing kevlar that covers all of his body so he is good.
Tim has the same thought process. He too runs over. He swings his bo staff, knocking over two of the three remaining infected. Jason runs over to the downed with a knife, and swiftly slits their throats. They both look up to the last remaining infected.
It charges at them, and they both dodge it easily. It begins swiping at them, and almost gets Jason. Jason throws his knife at the infected, however it only seems to become even more annoyed by this.
It charges once again at them, but this time it successfully tackles Jason to the ground. It's face snaps towards Jason's, only Jason arm holding it away. Tim runs over to them and using his bo staff hits the infected's head.
Tim hears the man's jaw break when the bo staff collides, and helps Jason to his feet. The infected stands and snaps his jaw back into place. Jason pulls out another knife and throws it.
Tim winces at the brutality, and Jason walks over to where the body dropped dead. He bends down, and pulls the knife, from where it is imbedded in between the man's eyes. "C'mon," Jason says motioning for Tim to follow, "We got to get to Manor quickly."
They run along the rooftops in an uncomfortable silence. Sure Tim is grateful that Jason saved him, but that doesn't make watching him slit the men's throats any easier. He knows that Jason was protecting them, but they are human. Were human. Who knows if they will ever be again?
Tim is pulled out of his thoughts when the buildings disappear, and they are on the ground running through woods. Finally after much running, they make it to the Manor.
"You weren't kidding when you said it could withstand Superman," Jason says looking up at the reinforced steel and titanium lined with kryptonite surrounding the Manor.
"If I plug into the main system, I may be able to bypass the security feature," Tim announces.
"Since when can you hack better than Barb?"
"I can't, but I don't play fair. Besides, she was trying to get access to the Batcave's system and then hack into that. It'll be easier since I can just plug myself into the system. Plus, she taught me some tricks," Tim explains to Jason.
"Just get to it," Jason says pushing Tim towards the security panel to the right of the front door.
Tim pulls out a smalling hacking device from his belt, and plugs it into the system. He begins typing into the device. Jason stands there watching for the first five minutes before growing impatient. "I'll be over there if you need me," Jason says pointing towards some trees. Tim mutters his response, not looking at Jason when he does so.
The tapping at the keyboard becomes furious. Tim taps away quickly at the keyboard. His eyes scanning the machine as the lines of code fly by. He tries to keep up.
Jason looks back at Tim, they have been out for over two hours now, Dick would grow suspicious. To completely honest, Jason is surprised that Dick hasn't radioed him yet. While he is thinking about this though, about twenty minutes into Tim's hacking attempt, he hears a spark. He looks up and sees the control panel is fried and a very happy looking Tim.
"The hell'd you do?" Jason asks.
"I confused the crap out of it," Tim declares.
"Why do you look so happy? You fried the security panel, and the defenses are still up."
"Because I wasn't trying to bring the security system down, I was trying to hack into the Batcomputer, which I did. We are now officially in the system," Tim says grinning. He looks at the device, and taps a few commands, and the security feed begins playing.
He scans through the multiple cameras seeing if he can spot Alfred or Bruce.
"There you are!" a voice from the shadows calls out. He steps out of the shadows to reveal Dick Grayson. "You weren't allowed to come here for a reason."
"Yeah, we know that you have been hiding something from us!" Jason shouts back.
"I admit that I have, and I'll explain everything, once we get back to the Clocktower," Dick assures them.
"You're just like Bruce!" Jason shouts at him. "Hiding things and then claiming you did it to protect us! It's utter bullshit!"
"He's right Dick," Tim tells him.
"Not you too Timmy. Look, let's all go back to the Clocktower and I'll explain everything."
"Really tempting offer," Jason replies sarcastically, "but I'd like to make a counter offer. FUCK OFF!"
Dick gets prepared to fight Jason, and Jason readies himself to fight as well. "Screw this! Guys, we can't be fighting among ourselves, we have to work together or we will all die!" Dick and Jason both sigh.
"Fine, we'll go back, but only because I don't feel up to fighting right now, even someone as weak as Dickhead," Jason states, except for the last part which he 'mutters'. And by mutter, it is meant that he said it loud enough for Dick to hear and understand, but he pretended to not intend on him hearing it.
When they arrive back at the Clocktower, Dick and Jason are still obviously annoyed at each other. Barbara is the first to comment on the tension, "What is wrong with you two?"
"I'll tell you what, this giant ass DICK, for lack of a better word, has been withholding information from all of us," Jason declares.
Barbara looks at Dick like she doesn't want to believe it. "It's true. I said I hadn't heard, that isn't true. Right after the Manor went on lockdown, I received this message," Dick admits pulling out his laptop and placing it on the table.
"Dick, I am sorry," the message begins. "I have failed you and the others, as well as this city. When facing off against one of the infected, he snapped at me. It was unexpected, and I narrowly moved out of the way.
"However, the man's saliva still came in contact with my face. I realized that when I had rubbed my face, I had inadvertently rubbed the toxin into my body. However, I am far enough into my research that I have realized that a cure is unlikely.
"The best doctors in the world have been looking to cure cancer for decades and an entirely reliable one still is yet to be found. With this, this spreads rapidly, quickly consuming the population. It is entirely likely that someone somewhere didn't realize they had the disease and then boarded a plane.
"The cure could slowly be making it's way throughout the world, slowly gaining momentum, and there's nothing we could do about it. I would assume that Gotham will be wiped off the map to prevent the disease from spreading even more than it already has. I want you to to get them all out.
"It's too late for me, I've already been infected, and Alfred refuses to leave the cave. I cannot risk any other lives by going out in the open. I cannot risk an infected Batman. I truly am sorry. I will miss you."
Silence ensues as the video comes to a close.
"Well Shit," Jason says breaking the silence.
A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed this story, the next chapter should be up in a week or two. Review if you enjoyed it or if you didn't. Let me know what you thought, talk to you guys later.