It was a beautiful day when the apocalypse started for Karkat. The sky was a clear, cloudless blue, the weather was warm but there was a cool breeze, and even though school was still in session even the teachers didn't feel like working. It almost seemed tragically beautiful, all in all. Everyone always assumed the apocalypse will come on a dark, overcast day when everyone important to them is safe at home and the only people dying are people who don't matter to them.
School was letting out when the first zim was spotted.
Karkat in't sure about the others, but he remembers it with perfect clarity. At first it just seemed like another drunk wandering past; that was something that happened all too often with a bar just a few streets down. No one paid him much mind, usually they just wander past. A few heads turned when he headed straight for the itty-bitties, but no one was all too concerned. "Excuse me, Sir? I'm gonna have to ask you to leave…Sir?" the tinny voice of one of the teaching assistants for the little ones could be heard trying to get him to leave. The scene escalated as she called for backup from the other teachers, her blond hair whipping back and forth as she looked frantically around. The man was stopped, looking at her and slowly blinking in confusion, when suddenly he lunged forwards and grabbed the teaching aid. His teeth sunk into her neck, and her high-pitched scream was cut off in a wet gurgle.
After that things are kinda hazy in Karkat's memory. There was lots of screaming, and a mad rush to get away. Karkat just stood there in shock, looking at the man hunched over the body of the woman, pulling chunks of her flesh off and eating them. He paused in his feast and seemed to look directly at Karkat. Karkat trembled in fear. A shout of his name broke him out of his reverie and he turned and ran towards the shout, looking desperately for the voices' owner. He spotted Terezi through the crowd, and ran towards her. Her unnaturally pale face was even more pale, and she was clutching her cane tightly. "Karkles, what's going on? I smell blood, and everyone is running." an uncharacteristic frown was present on her usually smiling face.
Karkat grimaced. "I'm not really fucking sure, but I do know we need to get the hell out of here. Come on, as much as I hate to say it, Kankri will probably know what to do." Karkat grabbed Terezi's hand and started running towards his house, not worrying about Terezi keeping up, only about the two of them making it safely home in one piece.
The main streets they crossed were in chaos, people were running and screaming everywhere. No one seemed to know what was going on. They kept to the side streets.
Karkat's house was at the end of a cul de sac, a secluded place that Terezi had been to visit many times throughout their friendship. Karkat struggled with the lock on the front door, his fingers turning to butter and the key slipping repeatedly. Finally he got it in the lock, and he and Terezi rushed through, slamming it behind them. "Kankri? Are you home yet?" Karkat shouted, jogging through the house to look for his older brother. It was empty.
"I'm sure he's just caught in traffic, there are a lot of people in the streets Karkles." Terezi laid a reassuring hand on his shoulder, sensing his distress and trying to soothe him at least somewhat. Even though she lived for antagonizing Karkat, even she could tell when it was time to draw the line and be serious.
"Yeah, of course that's it. Or maybe that fuckass is just off with his boyfriend, totally ignoring my existence. I'm sure he's fine. He can handle himself. If anyone attacks him he'll probably just talk their ear off about how 'impolite' and 'triggering' they're being to him. Or he'll bore them to death. I don't know how that blithering shitstain's boyfriend puts up with him to be honest, he doesn't know when to stop talking. So see there's really nothing to worry about Terezi." he rambled on, reassuring himself more than he was Terezi.
"Of course, Kankri could talk the ear off of anything. While we wait for him, let's see what you have in your fridge!" Terezi grinned wickedly and walked off towards the kitchen, successfully diverting Karkat's attention to the fridge.
"Hey wait you dick-nosed dragon did I fucking say that you could raid my food?" Karkat shouted, running after Terezi, spewing more insults as her tinny laugh echoed throughout the house.
.
They spent the night as if they were having a normal slumber party, having food and watching movies. Despite their best attempts, a heavy cloud still hung over them.
The next morning was more subdued, and the worry was almost palpable in the air. Breakfast was simple, and Karkat didn't do much more than pick at his food. Halfway through a meal full of Terezi trying to make light jokes, Karkat stood up suddenly. "We need to check the news, why the hell didn't we think of that sooner?" he exclaimed. Karkat rushed over to the TV and turned it on, flipping quickly to one of the news stations and turning it up so that Terezi could hear.
A young announcer came on screen. "What we're seeing now is being called by many as the 'Apocalypse', and it certainly seems like that. Individuals who are infected with a newly developed disease that has appeared out of nowhere grow aggressive quickly, and will attack others on sight. The infected look the same as uninfected, but their mannerisms are very different. The infection seems to be transmitted through cuts and other wounds, so it would be best to avoid contact with any of these infected. Early symptoms start with headaches, drowsiness, and fever, and progress into blacking out, vomiting, and coughing up blood. There is currently no cure, but scientists are looking for one as we speak. For any survivors there is a quarantine area being set up in the CDC building on the corner of 5th and Main Avenue. Survivors are cautioned to bring weapons with them but not to provoke the infected. The estimated death toll is around one-" Karkat turned off the television and the screen went black with a click. The silence rang, in the way only silence after a loud rock concert, or a particularly rowdy school assembly. Karkat slumped against the coffee table and neither of them spoke.
Terezi silently stood up from her chair and walked through the open space into the living room, her socked feet tsk-tsk-ing gently across the wood floors until she was at Karkat's side. "Karkat." she laid a hand gently on his shoulder. " I'm sure your brother will be fine, but he wouldn't want us to mope like this. He'd want us to do something. C'mon Karkles, you're always going on about what a good leader you are, so now's the time to prove it and do something."
Karkat didn't move for a moment, and then he sat up slowly and crossed his arms, the ghost of a smile on his face. "That's because I am a fucking amazing leader Pyrope." he said quietly before returning to his normal state. "Alright Pyrope, now that I've been appointed the command of illustrious leader by dragon dick one and fuckass two, you have to do what I say. Let's gather some shit, and go to the CDC. Come on, snap snap motherfucker!" he almost sang gleefully before jumping to action and running throughout the house, calling out things that they would need to grab over his shoulder at Terezi.
Terezi laughed. "Sure, make the blind girl do all the work!" she shouted jokingly as she walked forwards to help him, glad that he was somewhat back to his normal self after all.
That was a long time ago. Before Karkat had to watch many of his friends die, before he found out that zims weren't the only creatures this apocalypse had created, and before he had a fateful run in with one of them. Karkat barely remembers what it was like to be happy, even though he felt like it was the worst day of his life back then.
Man, was he wrong.
Author's note!: I'll be doing this from the perspectives of and following many different characters, and the storylines will all be jumbled up and seperate for a while until they converge at the end. I'm just about finished with the next chapter right now and I'll be posting that at some point tomorrow. I already pretty much know which ships will be in it but aside from a main few I am definitely open for ship suggestions! Clearly I already ship Kankri with someone, and I'll be keeping Rosemary canon, Kurlin is my OTP so that's going in there, and I have plans for Karkat although I won't spill with whom so don't ask for ships with any of these characters! I mean you can but I won't put them in. This is not just a zombie apocalypse story! This is a full-on apocalypse, so there will be more creatures later. For an idea of what this will be like, feel free to check out any of the apocalypticbent or apocalypticstuck type blogs on Tumblr, which is roughly where I got this idea.