The blaring morning sun shone through the kitchen window as Mordecai poured milk into his cereal bowl, his eyes nearly closed from fatigue. He had just stumbled downstairs, still only half awake. Rigby lied in bed, asleep. Mordecai looked at the microwave clock. "Oh shit!" It's 8:30! We're late!"
He rushed back up the stairs to notify Rigby. "Dude! Wake up dude!" he said, whispering loudly and shaking him.
"Whaaaat?" Rigby said, slowly turning over.
"We're late!"
Mordecai grabbed Rigby by the shoulder and took him with him as he ran downstairs, and quickly noticed what he hadn't noticed earlier due to his tiredness. Rigby rubbed his eyes and looked over as well.
Crowded onto the couch and staring intently at the television were Benson, Skips, Pops, Muscle Man, and High Five Ghost. From the middle of the stairs, Rigby and Mordecai saw a news report on the screen. People running, screaming, buildings engulfed in fire surrounding them, and cars that had either crashes into the building or were speeding away from... whatever the frightened citizens were running from, the cars almost killing anyone who got in their way as they desperately swerved through the streets.
Suddenly, after all the cars and people had gone out of the camera's vision, a few other people ran past- but they looked different. Their clothes were ragged, torn, and bloody. Their faces were pale, bruised. Their hair, if they had any, was falling out, greasy, and ruffled.
"Bad show..." Pops said quietly.
Their quivering focus was abruptly broken by Rigby. "What the fuck is going on?" Rigby said, standing next to Mordecai who had a look that seemed to ask a similar question on his face. "Why didn't Benson wake us up and scream at us like he usually does when we're late? And what the hell is that on TV?"
"You know how on 9/11, everything in the U.S.A. stopped to glare at the unexpected tragedy? This is kind of like that, except this actually might directly and continually affect us. Come take a look, guys." Skips said, then motioned for them to come and watch with them.
On the screen, it cut to a reporter standing on the edge of a clearly chaotic city. "Here in New York, a failed scientific study hoping to lead Earth towards immortality has resulted in a catastrophic outbreak of a disease causing victims to turn violent, attacking and infecting non-carriers. Not much is known about this disease yet, but because of the nature of it's contagiousness, experts predict that it will spread across the U.S. in a matter of months or even weeks. Scientists plan to quickly collect and quarantine carriers of the disease in order to perform more research as to how to stop the outbreak. This is Kat Moore, reporting live, on the outskirts of New York." The channel resumed it's normal news schedule.
They were all speechless for a moment. Benson was the first to speak up.
"Oh my god, my grandma and some of my family lives there... I have to go." HFG said, rushing off.
"Fuck..." Mordecai muttered. Rigby felt everyone's stomach sinking too. They had no idea what to say.
"I have a life I wanted to finish living, and... What's this? Is it real? I can't believe-" Pops was interrupted.
"Listen, I know you're all dumbfounded and have no idea what to say or do, and I've thought about this for a while this morning, but I think we should take advantage of all the time we can to prepare, and find a safe place to hide until- hopefully, whatever this nightmare is, ends. The news lady said the outbreak could spread across the entire U.S. in weeks, so, us, living in West Virginia, should prepare. The virus could reach us any day. If you're all on the same page as I am, we need to stick together and get as far away from New York as we can. If all of you plan on doing something with your lives, I suggest we all do this so we can live to do that. But, er... give me a while to think... I just..." He trailed off.
"Yeah, what Benson said," Skips added. "By now, all ports and airports could be crowded. We need to prepare quickly and get out. Get a decent supply of clothes and whatever else you need. We'll get food and supplies later."
The others walked off to what Skips would guess is, do exactly what he said- prepare, but in a manner as if to say 'Excuse me, you have a very good point, but I need to take in the magnitude of the event which has just occurred.'
Rigby and Mordecai walked up to their rooms, baffled.
"I swear, if this is a dream," Rigby grumbled, reaching to pinch himself.
"Cut it out Rigby, this is a serious matter. We have to get ready like they said. Do you plan on ending up the way the people on the TV did, dude?"
"Jeez, why so serious? It'll be fine. We have a strong military, we'll eventually get it under control, heh... Heh... I hope so." The last part Rigby had quietly said.
He didn't want to be in the situation he saw on TV either.
"The news reporter said weeks, Rigby. It's like Pops said... I don't think all of us are happy with the lives we've lived. What if this is the end? Ugh... I just don't know what to say, this sucks."
Mostly ignoring Mordecai, Rigby thought out loud. "You know, I've always wanted to be in the apocalypse, to gloriously survive and be one of the last brutal ones alive."
Mordecai chuckled. His worry grew as he thought about what could happen, but he decided to eventually just stop thinking about it too hard.
He occupied himself by stuffing his backpack with his things, instead.
Boy I had fun starting this off. I felt like I maybe shouldn't have jumped into the action too much, but I'm already happy with how I'm doing for my first time and I'm really enjoying this. Whatever, it's always better to jump into cold water than to slowly ease yourself in, letting the water slowly and painfully pass over your genitals. And don't worry, the Morby will come. 3morbyomgilovemorbysTOPNEGLECTINGTHEMORBYJUSTBECAUSEREGULARSHOWISDONE
-Lucy