Authors Note: This was written for apocabigbang over on LJ, there's an awesome fanmix by zeldaophelia over there too, the link to my journal is on my profile page. I had planned to post this here earlier but RL in the form of college assignments got in the way. Since this is already written all the way through, I plan to update this every couple of days. Let me know what you guys think!

Into Dark Times

Chapter 1

It had been quick, quicker than anyone had expected, there'd just been no time to stop it. It started on a small island in the Caribbean, a teenager had turned up dead at a local hospital and no one could figure out the cause of death. A day and a half later someone else turned up with exactly the same symptoms and by day four they had over a dozen patients. The CDC had been quick to respond, teams were sent in to control and contain the situation, less than an hour later the island had been quarantined. Flights were stopped, no boats were allowed to leave or go anywhere near the island but it wasn't enough and by the end of the week they had potential cases in America, Europe and Australia. It was clear by the end of the weekend that they had a global outbreak on their hands.

The media had caught on right about there and before any official statements could be given the press had already caused panic. The CDC held an emergency press conference to give more real information and they'd used comforting phrases like 'working on an antivirus' and 'seems to be contained'. It hadn't been long before people had realised there was nothing 'contained' about the virus.

The number of cases increased, the death toll rose dramatically and hospitals were overwhelmed. Schools were closed, public gatherings were cancelled, stores stopped opening and people were afraid to leave their homes. Information coming through the media became more and more bleak, people panicked. By the end of week two every cheesy apocalyptic movie suddenly seemed far more realistic. Anarchy broke out, looting, fires, fights, the police tried to maintain control but law and order was quickly shot to hell. Cops fell victim to the virus or the fighting on the streets and as their numbers dwindled they were told to go home to their families.

A few days later it was all over.

The street was lined with smashed windows and doors that had been boarded up. There were still a few cars left, sitting where their owners had left them months ago. Everything was quiet, as usual, and it made his footsteps seem all that much louder. Mac watched the buildings warily, his eyes darting from window to door to alley, watching for any sign of movement, he wasn't fooled by the quiet; it cost lives when he was. A woman came out of the door beside him, the back of her curly hair the first thing he saw as she too looked around her warily.

"There's not much left here," she stated as she finally looked at him.

"I'm not surprised Stella, it's getting harder to find anything, what did we get?" Mac asked her and she glanced back into the small convenience store.

"A couple of bottles of water, some rice, some tinned food, batteries, not a lot. Jess is still checking the back of the store and Danny's bagging everything from the front but I'm not expecting we'll find much more, someone was definitely here before us," she stated and Mac sighed. It had taken them over half an hour to find this place, he had no idea how long it would take to find another and he hated being out here longer than necessary, hated any of his team being out here longer than they had to be.

"Let's just get what we can and take it back to the apartment, we'll have to come back out here tomorrow," Mac told her, his mind already working through plans in his head. She nodded and went back into the store and Mac returned his full attention to the street. It was a few minutes before Stella came back out, Danny behind her with two heavy looking bags that he dropped on the floor and went back in. He returned a moment later with two more heavy bags and Jess carrying a third.

"I found a few things out back, not sure how much of it's useful but since we're not carrying much else I figured I'd might as well bring it along," Jess stated as Mac picked up the two bags Danny had dumped on the ground before and carried them to the car. All the bags were put in the trunk and everyone got in the car. Mac glanced behind him, the distinct feeling he was being watched making the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He couldn't see anything though, no sign of movement and there was no sound. He got in the car quickly, the faster they got out of there and back to the safety of the apartment the better. Stella gave him a curious look from the passenger seat and a glance in the mirror told him Danny and Jess had the same feeling he had because both of them were looking through the back window.

He started the car and drove them away from the store, away from whoever was watching them. The streets of New York were quiet, and still, the city that never sleeps had become a ghost town, void of life and activity. Everywhere it was the same, smashed windows, glass littered streets, broken down doors and worst of all... bodies. Bodies that had never been moved, people that were still laid in the place they'd died. Thankfully most were out of sight, in homes, hospitals or the triage areas that had been set up throughout the city. There were still some in the streets though, some sitting in the cars, others curled up in doorways or beneath blankets at the side of the road. It took them twenty minutes to get back to the apartment, parking the car down the street so as not to give away which building they were in to anyone who might be interested. They took the bags from the car and walked quietly along the path, all eyes on their surroundings as they finally made it to the apartment door. Stella unlocked it with her key and let everyone else in before ensuring it closed and locked behind her.

The four of them made their way up the stairs and Mac glanced at the security camera they'd installed there a few months ago when there'd been a concern about someone having been in the building. They were greeted on the third floor by Hawkes who took a couple of the bags and helped them take everything up to the fourth and final floor and to the first door along the corridor. There was music playing quietly inside, coming from Adam's mp3 which he had hooked up to a small speaker system. Adam himself was sat with Sid at the screens where the footage from the four security camera's they'd set up was displayed.

"So how much did you guys get?" Adam questioned as he turned around in the chair. Adam had been a God-send over the months since the virus. His technical skills had saved them a few times and it was him who had rigged up the security camera system using batteries since there was no electricity anymore. He'd also set up a motion detector near the entrance and an alarm system, it was all pretty rudimentary but it worked and one day it might be what saved them.

"Not a lot," Danny stated as he dumped his bags on the couch nearby and started routing through them. He pulled out a large plastic bag and put it on the coffee table. "Batteries."

"Yes," Adam exclaimed as he jumped up and grabbed the bag. "I was really starting to run low on these."

"We know," Danny replied as he took more stuff out of the bag and laid it out on the coffee table. Jess was emptying another bag, taking out various gadgets that Mac figured she'd got for Adam; the man could work wonders if given the chance.

"So can I stop rationing or is that too much to hope for?" Don questioned as he walked into the room with Lindsay. He walked over to Jess and kissed her before helping to unpack some things from the bags. Lindsay walked over to Danny and hugged him, probably relieved to have him and everyone else back in one piece.

"Alright, leave one bag of food here and everything else needs to be taken down to storage," Danny stated as he stood up straight and Mac grabbed one of the bags, following Don and Danny down the hallway to the apartment they'd used for storing any supplies they brought back. He unlocked it and walked inside, noticing how much emptier it was now than it had been six months ago. There were still a few containers of fuel for the cars, a whole pile of bottles of water but with ten of them sharing they probably only had enough there for a week, there were plenty of boxes of food but that still wouldn't be enough to last them more than the next couple of weeks at the most and that was rationing it. None of them were getting enough food at the moment and it was going to start having an impact if they didn't boost their supplies.

"You guys need any help," a voice from the doorway asked and Mac turned to see Jerome standing there with his hands stuffed in his pockets. He'd been one of the lab techs at the crime lab, relatively new to the place when the virus had hit and he'd stuck with Mac and the team afterward. There had been four other lab techs that survived too but one two of them had left a month after the virus and two had been killed since then, they were the reason Mac refused to ever let his guard down outside the apartment again, even inside sometimes. They didn't know why so many of them had survived the virus, only one percent of the world's population was immune and somehow all his team, Don, Jess and several of the lab techs had been in that number. He knew there had to be an explanation but he had more important things to worry about than finding out what that was, like surviving.

"Yeah sure, you can help sort this food out into the boxes," Don stated and the young lab tech nodded and moved across the room to help. Mac looked around him, even with what they had gathered today they still didn't have much, they were definitely going to have to go out again tomorrow.

Don leaned back in the chair and rubbed at his eyes, he was tired, he'd been up early that morning and hadn't been able to get back to sleep and tonight promised to be another difficult night with so many of them going out tomorrow. They didn't have much of a choice though, supplies were really starting to dwindle now and unless that wanted to run out soon they needed to go out there and find a better source than they had been recently. It had been almost seven months since the virus now and they weren't the only survivors in New York City, there were plenty of others, a lot of them working in gangs and a lot of the usual places had already been raided for supplies.

"I spoke to Hawkes and Sid earlier too," Stella said as she, Don and Mac sat in Mac's apartment discussing the plan for tomorrow. It was getting late and everyone else had gone back to their apartments to get some sleep for the day. Mac had used his apartment as the base of operations for them, the security feeds, the control for the alarm, all came in here, it seemed even with their jobs as cops over with he still held himself responsible for everyone's safety. "We're going to need to go the hospital at some point this week too, we're running really low on medical supplies and we've been putting it off in favour of getting food and water but there are some things that we really need. He used up a lot of what we had on Teresa last month."

Mac nodded and Don was forced to remember the night Hawkes has used those supplies, everyone's desperation to save Teresa, their efforts had failed in the end and the lab tech had died in the early hours of the morning. It was a none too subtle reminder for them all that just because the population of the city had decreased dramatically didn't make it any safer than it had been before; in fact, it was even more dangerous now. Disaster like this brought out both the worst and the best in people and for them, they'd seen far too much of the worst and very little of the best.

"Alright, it's Wednesday tomorrow and we'll head out for the food and water supplies, we'll stay here on the Thursday, keep our heads down and give everyone a break and then Friday we'll go down to the hospital and see what we can find," Mac decided and both Don and Stella nodded their agreement with the plan. "As for tomorrow, we'll split up, go in separate directions. The three of us plus Hawkes will go west, Jess, Lindsay, Danny and Jerome will go east, hopefully one or even both of the groups will find something."

"Mac..." Don began ready with a protest but Mac cut him off.

"I know you want to go with Jess but we can barely get Jerome out of his apartment and the only people that are likely to get him out are Jess and Lindsay, he gets along with the two of them better than the rest of us. That leaves one spot on their team and it's a choice between having this argument with you or having it with Danny and honestly, I'd have to spend all night talking Danny around," Mac explained and after a moment Don nodded his head. He didn't like it, Mac knew he didn't like and Jess would know as well but Mac was right, this was the best way to split the teams.

"Alright, we should all get some sleep," Stella stated. "If we leave early in the morning we're less likely to be spotted."

"No one leaves before dawn," Mac reminded them and once again they both nodded their heads as they got up to leave. They said goodnight to Mac and left, Stella's apartment was right next to Mac's so he said goodnight to Stella and went down the hall to his own apartment. After the virus, when they'd realised what their lives would be like they'd all moved into Mac's apartment building, he'd been the only survivor there, at least as far as they knew. They'd all claimed apartments on the top floor and the rest of the building had been cleared out, they'd taken away the bodies, which had been the hardest part of the whole thing and went through every apartment for supplies, locking each one up behind them. The doors had only been opened once since and that was a few months ago when they suspected someone else had been in the building, they'd swept every room on every floor but they'd never found anything and it all been locked up again.

He walked into the apartment and was met by the usual quiet, slightly cluttered apartment that had never been able to feel like home even in all the months he'd been living there. They'd all been able to bring a few things from their own apartments when they'd come here and there were a few photos lying around, a couple of home movies he'd managed to find and save, some of his clothes and other things that were important to him. They were all reminders of a life that was long gone, of people he cared about that were gone now and it was all he had left them of them. Jess's things were mixed in there too, most notably a family picture taken a couple of years before she joined homicide of her, her parents and her brothers, all gone now too mostly likely and if any of them were alive there was probably no way to find them. Don didn't dwell on it, he counted himself lucky that at the very least Jess had survived, that he still had her because he didn't think he would be able to stand this insane world they'd all been thrown into if he didn't have her. Others hadn't been so lucky, Sid had lost Alice, had held her as the virus claimed her as yet another of its victims.

He double checked the door behind him was locked and headed through to the bedroom, Jess was already asleep and he changed into his sweat pants and an old shirt, climbing into the bed beside her. She only partly woke up as he wrapped his arms around her from behind, pulling her back against his chest tightly and half burying his face in her hair.

"Everything okay?" she mumbled tiredly.

"Yeah," he told her holding her tighter. "Go back to sleep."

The sun was barely in the sky yet; it cast an orange glow over the quiet city and gave it an even eerier feel than it already had. The team were gathered outside the apartment building, taking care of the last minute details before they left. Danny loaded the bag with their bottles of water and snacks in it into the jeep he'd brought to the front of the apartment building that morning. Jerome and Lindsay were talking to Mac, Jess was with Don who didn't seem to want to let go of her hand until he absolutely had to. Danny couldn't blame him either, if he'd been sent separate from Lindsay he wouldn't have been happy about it either and even though he knew Mac would have had his reasons he wasn't sure he would have allowed himself to be separated from her, not when they were going to be out of the apartment for possibly the entire day.

"Alright," Mac called for everyone's attention. "Everybody is back here by nightfall, I don't want anybody still out here after dark, I don't care if you find the Holy Grail out there, you're back here before it gets dark."

"We got it Mac," Danny told him.

"I know you know all of this but I have to say it anyway," Mac stated. "Everybody stays together, don't wonder off from your group, watch out for each other and don't let your guard down. Keep your guns with you and get back in one piece."

Danny got in the car then, Jerome taking the passenger seat while Lindsay climbed into the back and Danny waited patiently for Jess. Don kissed her and reluctantly let her go and Danny had to give his credit for that because he wouldn't have been so graceful about it had it been him and Lindsay. Jess climbed into the back of the jeep with Lindsay and Danny started the car, driving them in the opposite direction to the others and giving Adam and Sid a wave. The two of them were staying at the apartment to keep eye on it; they never left the apartment unattended.

They drove for a few hours, talking quietly amongst themselves and watching their surroundings both for any sign of a threat and for any potential sources of supplies. They passed a lot of the small stores they'd already used or knew had been raided already, they went passed a large supermarket that they'd checked out two months ago and another they'd checked out before that. They drove passed Stella's old apartment building and Danny was suddenly very glad they'd all moved into Macs because every window there was smashed, there was a body hanging through one of them and it looked like part of the building had been on fire at some point too. It hadn't been like that all those months ago when Danny and Mac had come here with her to help her get some of her things together.

"There," Jerome stated pointing to their right and Danny could see the relatively intact looking supermarket. There was a dead body in the car park but he looked like a victim of the virus rather than anything else, there was no blood around and no noise, not that no noise meant anything anymore.

"Alright let's take a look, everybody keep your eyes open," Danny stated as he moved the car again, taking it very slowly and quietly into the car park and coming to a stop in front of the store. He didn't move and nobody spoke for a while, all of them listening and watching carefully for any sign of a threat but not finding one. "Let's check inside, stay together."

Danny got out of the car, helping first Lindsay and then Jess climb out of the back and then jump down while Jerome got out the other side. The four of them headed into the building, guns in hand as they walked through the door like they were entering a suspect's home. There didn't seem to be anyone around, they walked across one end of the store, looking down each of the aisles to check for anyone who might have hiding.

"Looks clear," Lindsay stated and Danny nodded, lowering his weapon but not holstering it just yet. The smell in there was terrible, there were a couple of bodies around and food that gone bad months ago but hopefully there'd be some useful supplies as well.

"Take a look around, see what you can find but nobody go too far," he told them and they all nodded splitting themselves up between the aisles. Danny was pleasantly surprised to find some of the things they needed. "Looks like we found what we were looking for, we might be home in time for lunch," Danny stated.

"Hate to burst your bubble Danny but it's already almost lunch time, we're going to be here for a while yet, should be back in time for dinner though," Lindsay's voice floated back to him from the next aisle. "I can't believe no-one's found this place before."

"They have," Jess called back. "I got a body with a gunshot wound here, a lot of food knocked over and lot of it looks to be missing," Jess stated and Danny looked around him instinctively, checking for any sign of a threat.

"Why kill someone for the food here, there's plenty of it and they didn't even take that much, there was easily enough for both?" Jerome questioned as he rounded the corner. "There's a whole aisle full of tinned food that way by the way and as you'd expect the water here is useless."

"Well the food is a start," Danny stated. "I don't want to be here longer than we have to, especially is someone else already knows about this place, let's just get what we can in the car and get going."

"Sounds good to me," Lindsay stated and the next thing he heard was a shopping cart moving in his direction and he turned to see Jess manoeuvring two carts down the aisle toward them.

"These should make that go quicker," she said releasing one for Danny to take and leaving again with the other one. "I'm off to get the pasta."

"What is it with her and pasta?" Danny questioned.

"It's her favourite food," Lindsay stated as she walked up to him with her arms full of jars and dumped the whole lot in the cart. "I'm going to find me one of those."

They gathered up what they could as quickly as they could, filling three shopping carts with any food that hadn't spoiled and started taking it out to the car. Jess and Danny started loading everything in while Lindsay went back with Jerome to find some toiletries and any other last minute things that came to mind. They didn't have enough room in the trunk so Danny was about to suggest they put some of it on the floor in front of the seats, it would make for an uncomfortable trip back but it would mean more supplies. He didn't get the chance though, he caught sight of moment behind one of the parked cars and dropped the box of tins in his hand reaching for his gun and quickly getting Jess's attention. She drew her own weapon pointing it in the same direction he had, trying to see what Danny had. Everything happened quickly then, men began appearing from all over the place, stepping out from between the cars and from behind the building and Danny quickly came to the conclusion that they were outnumbered, there were ten of them at least and only Jess and Danny out here, Lindsay and Jerome were still inside.

"Drop the weapons," one of them men stated, stepping forward from the rest of his gang, his own gun aimed at them. "I think you can see you're out numbered, so the drop them or we'll kill you both."

"Not before we take out a couple of you," Danny replied and the man just laughed at him.

"Doesn't matter, minus two of us or not we'll still get what we want," the leader told him. "Now drop the weapons or we'll kill you both right now," he continued and neither Danny nor Jess moved which the man took as a lack of co-operation and ordered his friends to kill them.

"Alright fine, we don't want any trouble," Danny tried to reason lowering his weapon and dropping it to floor, Jess doing the same. "We just came for some supplies."

"Well these are our supplies," the man stated. "And no one steals from us."

"Fine," Danny stated, hoping to talk their way out of this and knowing already that it probably wouldn't work, it never did. "Then we won't take anything, we'll just go."

"It's not that simple, you have something else we want," the man told him turning to rest of his men. "Take the girl."

Danny and Jess both tried to reach for their guns at the same time but neither were fast enough, two of the men had hold of Jess before either of them could get close enough to the ground to get their weapons. Two shots were fired at Danny both narrowly missing him and Jess tried to fight off the men that had grabbed her but was slowly being dragged away from him. Danny tried to reach her only to be cut off by more gun fire. Suddenly the two men holding onto Jess were hit square in the chest and Danny saw Lindsay by the entrance to the store, gun in hand. Jerome came running out behind her, with his own gun and Danny took advantage of the distraction to pick up both his and Jess's weapons, using both to fire at their attackers.

He heard Lindsay shout Jerome's name and turned in time to see the man hit the floor and Lindsay try to make her way over to him through the bullets that were being sent their way. He kept his concentration on the fire fight, glancing occasionally at Jess who was slowly making her way back to Danny using a couple of cars as cover. She was almost back to him when one of the men grabbed her from behind. Everything went from moving too fast to moving in slow motion, Jess tried to get loose from the man that grabbed her and Danny turned his gun in that direction. Again, he wasn't fast enough and before he could get a shot off the man had slid a knife into Jess side. Danny shot him and ran over to her, hearing the sound of gun fire dying away and several cars speeding off as the gang realised their numbers had been cut in half.

"Jess," he called out to her as he ran to her side, she wasn't moving. He dropped to his knees next to her and turned her onto her back, she was still conscious, clutching at the wound by her side, trying and failing to stop the loss of blood.

TBC