It was a cold, dusky night on Halloween when the WWE had their house show in the city's local arena. Everything was going just as planned (for once), however that was soon about to change, for things were about to all come crashing down.
A zombie plague had arisen, the hoard increasing by the minute and infecting people in the masses. Why, how and where is unimportant, what is important is that, by the time the zombies had reached the city where the WWE roster was, they'd become global threat, spreading chaos in their wake.
Two people who weren't aware of this were Raw and Smackdown General Managers, Brad Maddox and Vickie Guerrero.
The pair was outside the arena arguing with one another (or Vickie was screeching at him and Brad didn't care enough to do anything about it, we should say). Triple H and Stephanie McMahon had sent the two to find the Big Show and neither were having that much lucky finding the big guy. Not that they were going to return back to the office empty handed. Vickie liked her job while Brad had already been beaten up once by The Shield and didn't want to relive the experience again.
But, rather than continuing to search for Show inside the arena, Vickie got frustrated and blamed Maddox for their troubles, so nothing much was getting done. …Until they caught sight of the zombie that is (not that Maddox or Vickie knew this).
"Is he drunk?" Brad asked quizzically to Vickie, causing the woman to stop her ear-splitting shrieking and turn to the shabby, stumbling man heading slowly in their direction.
"WHAT ARE YOU ASKING ME THAT, FOR?!" Vickie yelled, pushing Brad Maddox towards the walking undead. "GO CHECK! FIND OUT! NOW!" Parts of her shrieks were out of anger towards the man, but she was also scared; she didn't like the look of the man one bit.
"Erm...Hello? Sir? I'm afraid you can't come in here…" Brad slowly approached the stumbling zombie, eyes widening at its bloody, sallow appearance. Either this man was wasted out of his mind or he was a zombie... Brad quickly came to the conclusion that it was the former. "Vickie, can you handle this? He's really drunk and I'm not getting through to him…"
"Urgh! You're so stupid! Damn perro!" Snarled Vickie, having had all she could take of Brad Maddox. Marching forward and shoving the former referee out of the way, she held a hand up in front of the groaning man. "EXCUSE ME! I am the general manager of Smackdown and I order you to leave the premises immediately!" When all the seemingly brain dead man did was groan loudly, Vickie lost her temper. "I SAID EXCUSE ME!"
"On second thought, Vickie, I think he's a zombie... " Brad said, slowly backing away now. Truth be told, he was sort of rooting for the zombie right now. Anything to shut up that harpy of a woman! "Should have told you that earlier…My bad!"
"Are you being serious, Maddox?!" She took that as a yes, from the way Brad was nervously backing away from her...and the zombie. "Fine! Be a wimp! You were never a good assistant anyway! I could-" Those were the last words uttered from the mature woman, before she was held captive of the zombie. Brad, not wanting to stick around, dashed as far away as he could.
Once he reached the entrance to the arena, he looked back to see how Vickie was faring and cringed. The zombie had its teeth sunk into her neck and the woman was wailing in its grasp. "Looks like she's a goner...Oh well, better her than me. Never did like - wait...oh, you have got to be kidding me!" Brad watched in horror as a dozen zombies came into view, slowly shuffling their way right to the building. He had to go warn the bosses!
It was as Brad ran inside that he realised how ludicrous he was going to sound. There was no way he was going to break this to the bosses without them yelling him out of the room! Once he reached Triple H's office and ran inside, he decided to just get it over with. "Hey, Stephanie! Mr. CEO! Listen, bad news. Zombies have taken over and a horde of them are heading right towards the arena. They also got Vickie! ...Oh, and we couldn't find Big Show either. Sorry?"
Brad was hoping for a response. Any response, really, even if was negative. But, he got none, and soon he would understand why. Since entering the office, he'd only see the backs of Stephanie McMahon and Triple H. Then they turned around to face him and...well...judging by their skin, their emotionless white eyes and their inhuman groaning, it seemed that they too they were zombies.
Shit.
"Oh fuck!" Brad sprinted to the other side of the room like a star of an Action-Adventure movie, hurriedly opening the door. What he saw was what he least wanted to see: more fucking zombies. Yes, he was so fucked, and definitely not in the way he wanted to think.
"Where the hells the goddamn Shield when you need them?" the young man yelled, slamming the door shut and backing up against it as Triple H and Stephanie McMahon edged closer to him. Their dead, unseeing eyes were set on his frightened blue ones and their hands stretched out to grab him. Outside the door, he could hear the zombies clawing at it, desperately trying to get in. He was cornered. "Don't eat me! I'm too pretty!" These were his last words as Triple H and Stephanie fell upon him and bit into his skin.
Speaking of The Shield, they had no idea of the chaos currently going on in the building. The three men were going over their game plan for their match that night against Daniel Bryan and the Rhodes brothers.
"Look, the plans easy as shit. We focus on the Rhodes. We get retribution for the fluke victory that happened last time and we show the whole entire fucking world why we are the dominant force in WWE. Any questions?" Dean said, his back turned to Roman and Seth, both of whom could see an army of zombies slowly approaching them.
"Dean…"
"Yeah, Seth?" He wondered why his teammate spoke with such unease.
"Look behind you!"
"...What?"
"Look behind you! DEAN! TURN AROUND!" The volume of Seth's yells increased through the progression of time, him and Roman slowly backing away from the leader of the trio.
"What? Is this a fucking prank or something?" It was Halloween, but this definitely was no prank...not that Dean was aware of this. He could see the green figures stiffly move towards him, but it'd take more than a bunch of backstage employees with authentic looking make-up to fool Dean. He was not an easy fucker to fool or to scare.
"Dude, it's not a prank! Those are mother fucking zombies!" Snapped Roman, wishing Dean would get a grip and come join them.
"Roman's right, Dean! Come on, we need to get out of here!" Seth tried to reach Dean, but was held back by Roman.
Dean Ambrose was unmoved by all this. He simply sneered at their worried expressions and turned back to the group of zombies heading right for him.
"Look at you two! Fucking shitting yourselves over some stupid prank! Well, these ugly bastards don't scare me!" He wasn't the leader of The Shield for nothing! He strode forward, twitching and zigzagging like he was often prone to do. "Oh, I'm so scared! A bunch of ugly, green men are slowly walking over to me. Ooooh! Heh, even got the fake cut off limb goin - ARGH! SON OF A BITCH! THE FUCKER BIT ME!"
"Of course he did, fool! It's a zombie!" Roman yelled, past the point of exasperation. And then he and Seth froze, because Dean had come to a complete stop and was now making a groaning noise. It appeared that Dean had quickly joined the army in record breaking time. Sure, his eyes were still human like, and his skin was still peach coloured, but Seth and Roman knew the truth.
"DEAN?! DEAN!" Seth said, tears slowly trickling down his eyes.
Minus the groaning, no response. With his arms extended, Dean walked to the two Shield members as stiffly as the zombies. Eventually, his palms would make contact with Seth's shoulders, causing the two-toned hair man to jump back and scream. His pitch went unusually high, and the volume was enough to wake anybody who was still in their grave.
Dean just couldn't keep a straight face, laughing out loud at the reaction. It appeared it had all just been an act. "THAT WAS FUCKING GREAT! YOU SCREAM LIKE A FUCKING WOMAN, SETH!" The Cincinnati native cackled, slapping his knee. "Man, that reaction was fucking priceless! Motherfucking price-"
Dean's words were cut off in seconds when Roman Reigns let out a roar and speared him right off is feet; his hands gripping his head and bashing it against the hard ground. "GO BACK TO HELL WHERE YOU CAME FROM, YOU DAMN ZOMBIE! THIS THE SHIELD'S YARD!" The large Samoan continued trying to smash Dean's head open, trashing talking all the while.
He was stopped by a frantic Seth Rollins. "Wait, Roman, stop! Dean's not a zombie! He's still human!"
"Yeah, I'm not dead yet! Jesus Christ, can't you two take a joke?" Dean shoved the shocked Samoan off of him. He cringed at his wound and then looked back towards the zombies. They hadn't even made it halfway to where they stood. "Fuck me, they are slow…"
Seth ran to Dean and clutched him protectively. "Dean, what are we going to do!? You've being bitten! You're going to become one of them!"
"And?" Dean said, shrugging. "I've been in worse situations like this." Like the time he had to ride Paul Heyman's dick...shudder.
"Don't you get it, Ambrose?!" Roman yelled. "You're gonna fucking die! You aren't gonna live anymore!"
"You're going to become just like THEM!" Seth jabbed his finger in the direction of the slow horde, getting a little hysterical at just how calm close friend was. "Doesn't that bother you at all?"
All was quiet (except for the groaning of the zombies) as Dean considered this. For a second, it looked like the reality of his situation had dawned on him, but then he grinned. "Nope."
"Seriously? Why the hell not!?" Roman just couldn't process this. "Stop being such a dumbass, Dean! Think of your girlfr... Think or your kid... Think of someone who you love!" But that didn't work, because Dean Ambrose didn't really have any loved ones. Not a girlfriend like Seth or a kid like Roman Reigns. All he had was his whore mother and Sami Callihan, and knowing Sami he had probably being all too happy to join the zombie hoard.
Seth was having a hard time with this as well. "But-but, but you're going to become the walking dead! A mindless ghoul! An animated rotting corpse who eats human flesh and BRAINS!" No matter what Seth said, it didn't seem to deter Dean.
Dean once again shrugged. "At least I'll enjoy it. Besides, I've put worse things in my mouth." Seriously, Paul Heyman's dick was going to haunt his dreams. How Punk sucked that thing so many times, Dean would never know!
"You're out of your damn mind, man", grumbled Roman, shaking his head. "I always knew you were fucked up in the head, but this is crazy."
"Dean..." A single tear rolled down Seth's cheek. In a couple of hours, his old friend would be gone. They wouldn't be The Shield anymore without him. Why couldn't he see this?
"...Wait!" Dean paused as he once again looked at the small group of zombies, now about halfway up them and nearing. "What kind of zombies are we talking about here? I still get to tear shit up, right?"
Roman and Seth gaped at Dean before the huge Samoan turned to Seth. "Can we kill him now? Before he turns and eats us?"
"Roman!" Seth gasped, shocked at the suggestion. Then he thought about it more in detail. There was no way to save the infected Dean Ambrose and it was better that one of The Shield dies, instead of two or all three of them. "Okay, fine. But Dean...I just wanted to say...I lov-"
SPLATT! Grabbing the most lethal weapon he could find (which was a knife from the catering table), Roman threw it at Dean, blood gushing out of the man's head. Dean was dying...thinking that nobody had loved him. It was like a scene as emotional as something from The Notebook.
"ROMAN!" Seth yelled, punching Roman in the arm.
"What? You gave me your permission!"
"Yes, but I wanted to tell Dean I LOVED him! God, Roman! Ruin the moment, why don't you?!" The groaning sound of zombies snapped Seth and Roman away from what could have been a heated moment between the two and back into reality.
Grabbing the other's hand, they ran for their fucking lives, not daring to separate from each other.
It became clear to Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins that the zombie problem was not just contained to the backstage area they had escaped from, but the whole damn arena too. Fans were running through the hallway, screaming and crying at the top of their voices while try to escape through the exits. The panic and chaos was so bad that, in the struggle to get out of the building, some poor fans were pushed to the ground and trampled on.
"Roman, look! Over there!" Yelled Seth, their hands still entwined. Coming round the corner was the shuffling Darren Young and Titus O'Neil. The place was packed and things would get ugly real fast if the zombies managed to get near the fans and bite them.
"I'm on it." Roman let go of Seth and let out a loud roar before storming right at Titus and spearing him to the ground. Seth could only stand back and watch, impressed and a tad bit scared. If a wolf could transform into a man, than Roman Reigns would be the form it took. The man was like a beast, punching and slamming the zombies around wildly.
He cringed when Roman raised his foot and slammed it down repeatedly on Titus's head before grabbing what appeared to be a butcher knife and decapitating Darren Young's head in one swell swoop. He hadn't thought it possible, but Roman was coming off as scarier than the zombies!
Roman made his way back to him and said something, though Seth couldn't for the life of him make out what it was. The voices of the fans fighting like mad to escape were just too loud for them. The Samoan tried again, but no such luck. It was when the first try failed that the big guy lost his temper. "SHUT THE FUCK UP, OR IMMA GONNA SPEAR YOUR NOISY ASSES OUTTA THIS DAMN BUILDING!"
The fans did shut up. Immediately. In fact, they all quickly marched out of the the hallway in an orderly line, their heads down, because who the hell was going to protest to Roman Reigns when he was bloody, angry and holding a butchers knife? No one, that's who!
Seth tried to be the reasonable one. "Erm, Roman, remember that this is a zombie apocalypse and people are scared. Could you try and be a bit more…tactful?" That was the kindest word Rollins could use to essentially tell Roman to maybe tone down his intimidating, no-nonsense personality.
Reigns shrugged his shoulders at this, clearly not giving a crap. "Fine, whatever. If it'll make you happy." His hand grabbed Seth's again in its tight grip, leading him down the hallway where the Prime Time Players had come from. "Right now, all I care about is three things. 1. Finding other survivors. 2. Keeping you safe. And 3. Getting my little girl as soon as possible."
"Roman…" Seth said, touched that his partner valued their friendship to that extent. This tender moment didn't last long for, immediately after, Ricardo Rodriguez and Zack Ryder came crashing right into them.
"Oh crap, it's The Shield!" The "Long Island Iced-Z" cried out, backing away immediately. His expression turned to one of confusion when he noticed that the "Hounds of Justice" was one member short. "Hey, where's Dean Ambrose?"
"Where do you think, moron?" Seth sneered, finding the Long Island "Broski" even more intolerable than normal. Maybe it was because, despite running for his life, the man had still managed to keep his stupid glasses and headband on… "How's the roster?"
Ryder shook his head. "Not good, bro, not good at all. It's crazy down there! There are zombies where ever you look! RVD just turned into one! And, I was watching the news and they're saying that this might even be a pandemic!"
"Shit! Roman, this shit is worse than we thought! We've got to stick together and find as many survivors as we can, quick!"
"Woo, woo, woo! You know it!" Agreed Zack Ryder, though he yelped when Seth spun round and slapped the glasses off his face. "Hey, what was that for? Be cool, bro!"
"Quit fucking around, Ryder! As long as you're with The Shield, I don't want to hear your stupid catchphrases come out of your fucking mouth! Understood?" Seth then turned to Ricardo Rodriguez who had been notably silent. "What's wrong with Ricardo?"
Alberto's former ring announcer, Ricardo, was kneeling against the wall, shuddering all over and muttering stuff in Spanish. "Me duelo mucho. Dios. Ayúdame,por favor!" He paid no heed to any of them and kept on rocking back and forth, cradling his foot.
"I think he's just a little shaken up because of RVD becoming one of them. Wish he'd speak in English though…" Zack rubbed the back of his head, finding it weird to be conversing with The Shield and not getting beaten up or triple power bombed…
"He's hurt." Roman suddenly said, striding over to Ricardo to inspect him. After about a minute, he stood back up and brandished his butcher knife. "He's being bitten on the ankle and is in a lot of pain. What about you, Jobber boy? You hurt?"
Anyone else would have crapped their pants at the sight of Roman Reigns towering over them with a sharp weapon, but Zack Ryder was not anyone. He more clueless and naïve and didn't see the warning signs of where things were heading. "Yeah, I guess. One got me on my fingers, why?"
Soon as these words came out his mouth, Roman Reigns rose up the blunt side of the butcher knife and made to bring it down hard upon Zack Ryder. He would have done if not for Seth grabbing him and wrestling him away from the pair. "What are you doing? I need to take them out or they'll turn into mother fucking zombies!?"
"Yeah, I get that, but remember what I said about being tactful? Could you at least try? Considering this could be the end of the world, I think you might need to become more of a "people's person", Roman. You should maybe also see Dr. Shelby about anger management, provided he's still alive…"
"Woo, woo, woo! You know it!" Zack agreed, having forgotten Seth's threat from earlier. Unlucky for him that Seth had not.
"Can I kill these two now?" Roman growled, clearly not in the mood to deal with Zack Ryder's idiocy, Ricardo Rodriguez's hysteria and two potential zombies rising to try and eat them.
Seth looked back and forth between the grinning Zack Ryder and Roman Reigns before nodding his head at Roman. "Knock yourself out, man."
There was a lot of blood and roaring, but Seth and Roman had no regrets by the end of it. Those who were infected were not safe and have to be disposed of, plain and simple. Plus, Zack Ryder really was the more infuriating human being on the planet, second only to Santino.
After the deed was done, both men ran off to find if anyone else was still alive, still holding hands so they could stay by each other's side. As long as they stuck together and didn't separate, they'd be able to bear anything that gone thrown their way.
In stark contrast to the chaos at the WWE arena, things were still going on as normal for the NXT roster at Full Sail University; however this was all about to change.
Developmental diva, Bayley, was walking around aimlessly, alone and a tad bit bored. The commissioner of NXT and her friend (or so she thought), Dusty Rhodes, had being absent of late, busy dealing with some business regarding Triple H and his sons.
Triple H was one of the wrestlers who had inspired her to get into this business. She'd only seen him once and that was when she came out post-match to congratulate Paige on becoming the first NXT Women's Champion. The fact that both Paige and Dusty had got a chance to talk with "The Game" himself made her a little envious. Bayley would do anything to meet and hug him!
She'd be sooo happy if that were to happen!
Not much else to do, Bayley was just thinking about busting out her pogo sticking and having some fun when she saw something – or rather someone – that caused her to freeze in her tracks. Standing just a few feet away from her was retired WWE diva, Lita! Long, red hair, distinguishable tattoos on her arms…she could recognise her anywhere!
Lita was also alone and, just like Bayley, she was wandering around and doing a whole lot of nothing. Not that it would have stopped the young, 24 year old Diva if she wasn't. In fact, not even The Undertaker himself could stop Bayley from approaching Lita at this moment in time, for the former Woman's Champion was also on the list of those who had inspired her to wrestle.
Almost squealing with joy, the headband collecting, dinosaur and robot loving diva charged forward and encased Lita's body in a big hug. Why a hug? Because a hug was to Bayley what a handshake or "hello" was to everyone else, and as far as the child-like diva was concerned, you could never hug a person too much (though the NXT roster would probably say otherwise…)
"Hi-hi, Lita! I'm Bayley!" She gasped, unable to hold in her excitement. "I-I'm a big fan and I just wanted to tell you that you're one of my idols and that I lo-OW!" Bayley jumped back as she felt a sharp pain on her arm. Upon inspection, she saw a bite mark on the skin, blood starting to seep out from where the teeth had cut in.
"Di-di…Did you bite me? Was I hugging you too tightly? …Hey, Lita…why's your skin green? Are you sick…?" Bayley never got a chance to say anymore. Zombie Lita slowly turned around and fell upon the girl, teeth clamping down on the NXT divas throat and ripping it out.
It wouldn't be another half hour until Charlotte, daughter of the "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair, would come upon the now zombified Bayley. Bo Dallas, the current NXT Champion, was with her, still wearing that shit-eating grin that everyone just loved to hate. Charlotte gave a sigh of relief when she spotted her friend. She was a little surprised that the excitable girl was standing still for once, but who cared? She now had a good excuse to get the hell away from Bo Dallas who was, to put it plainly, driving her crazy.
"So, Charlotte, tell me. Would you say I'm BO-sotting? BO-autiful? BO-loved? Or how about-"
"Bayley, I've been looking everywhere for yo…" The "Nature Girl" interrupted him, running forward to greet her friend. As soon as she was close enough, she stopped and felt a chill run down her spine. The mess she had seen by the girl's feet was not some drink or paint but blood – and a huge amount by the looks of it. Charlotte knew then that something terrible had happened to Bayley. "Oh my god… What happened to you? Are you okay? Speak to me!"
She screamed when Bayley looked up at her, skin rotting, eyes white and dead and a huge gash on what essentially used to be her throat. Before she could do anything, the groaning zombie Bayley drew her into a bear hug and big into the crook of her neck, causing blood to spurt out.
Bo Dallas was BO-fuddled at first by the state Bayley was in, but when it became clear that shit was going down, he went BO-serk! "UnBOlievable!" The long haired NXT champion who wouldn't look out of place in a Twilight movie exclaimed. "I'm getting out of here!" Holding his title to him like it was his baby, went running in the direction he came with Charlotte, set on warning everybody.
No one would believe him (because the NXT roster thought of Bo as one, big joke), so, by the time the horde of zombies got into the audience and inside the arena, none were prepared to deal with the carnage and death they brought in their wake.
Well, except for one wrestler, that is…
So as you could tell, this is obviously a Halloween-themed story^^ This is just my way of making it up, for the lack of frequent updates in Best of Both Worlds. Credit to a good friend of mine for helping me with this, and helping to format the story! Also, no smut yet, but there will be smut in the next chapter :)