An Apocalypse of sorts falls upon Pasadena and Sheldon Cooper.

Night of the Yellow Fog

He'd watched, helpless, as the crazed fiends descended on the small band of refugees and dragged Howard off into the night. His moans and final whimpers were indelibly etched into his memory. Leonard had just looked at him and shrugged and then walked off into the night, surrendering to a virus-ridden small group that sought out the uninfected to satisfy their hunger. His sacrifice gave Sheldon his chance and he raced down alleyways and side streets seeking the shelter of his apartment.

Sheldon had considered almost every possible scenario when assembling his various Apocalypse backpacks but never, not in his wildest imaginings, had he conceived such a horrible ending to civilization. He should have asked Howard for pointers but Sheldon doubted he would have had the stomach for it.

When the first news reports had been broadcast they'd been in one of Sheldon's approved theatres watching a marathon of science fiction 'serials' from the 30s. Everyone was freely commenting on such characters as the Evil Ming from Flash Gordon, and the crude but entertaining special effects of Buck Rogers, cutting edge in their day, when the film suddenly stopped and the screams began.

Sheldon choked on a Red Vine and clutched his messenger bag while Leonard herded him out into the aisle and up towards the exits. "Raj!" Howard called for his friend but Raj had heeded the call of Nature and was far away in the Men's Room.

"Forget him. He's gone. We have to get out of here and back to the apartment," Leonard was already wheezing as the stress of the situation brought on an episode of shortness of breath. "But he drove! He's got the keys!" shouted Howard, shoving an old couple out of the way and hurrying towards the exit.

"It's not that far. We'll run and stay close together and use our combined numbers to fight off any attackers," said Sheldon. Leonard nodded in agreement, sucking fitfully on his inhaler and preparing to run for his life.

They tumbled out the theatre exit into a light yellowish fog that limited their vision and gave everything an eerie yellowish cast. Howard pointed the way and the trio ran down the sidewalk, sidestepping bodies and groups of women who were obviously infected by whatever was in the fog.

Back in the theatre Raj was washing his hands when the men's room door burst open and several women of various ages and states of undress ran in and dragged him out into the lobby. They weren't gentle, tearing at his clothing, nipping at his exposed skin and finally enveloping him in a pile of writhing flesh. It was soon over and the women moved on in search of another victim to satisfy their hunger. Bleeding from bites and abrasions, Raj crawled towards the safety of the snack bar when he heard a feminine moan and then once again he was dragged away by a tall woman dressed in black leather.

Sheldon finally reached his apartment building. It had been like running a gauntlet. His tan on tan windcheater had been torn along one sleeve and his back pocket ripped from his chinos when a woman had darted out from an alcove in a storefront and tried to drag him back into the darkness. He'd screamed so loudly that his assailant had actually been startled and he'd used her moment of indecision to run away as fast as his long legs could carry him.

He fumbled with his keys and got the glass security door open and relocked it as he made his way quietly up the steps. He'd seen wisps of the yellow fog seeping through the security door but there was already evidence of its presence in the building if the screams and moans and groans were any indication. He took the steps two at a time and rounded the third floor landing and stumbled over the body of old Mr. Henderson. He was naked and covered with welts and bite marks. It looked as if he's had a heart attack the way he was clutching his chest but oddly enough, he was smiling.

In a panic now, he stumbled up the stairs and made it to the fourth floor and safety.

"Hello, Shelly…been waiting… for you…" It was Penny, standing behind him, but hardly the Penny Queen he knew. Her eyes were almost glowing and her voice had a guttural quality that quite unnerved him. Her hair was a wild mess and her clothing, what little there was of it, was all askew.

"Penny there is something in the fog! People are going crazy. First, we lost poor Raj in the theatre. Howard was dragged into an alley by bloodthirsty women. Leonard just gave up and wandered off into the dark. Why, I myself just barely escaped a horrible fate when a woman grabbed me and – "

Later Sheldon could only describe what happened next as 'she pounced on me, knocked me down and then dragged me into her apartment'.

He woke up in Penny's bed. She was lying across him, snoring loudly. He tried to move, to slide out from under her without out waking her but she awoke, dug her nails into his skin and whispered, 'No. It's not safe out there.' She giggled and seemed to shake herself and then the feral gleam in her eyes returned and she grabbed his manhood and said roughly, 'It's not safe in here, either, Moon Pie'.

It became known as the 'Night of the Yellow Fog'. Experts from various government agencies traced the source of the fog to a pesticide company that was illegally dumping chemicals. Scores had died, almost all of them male. The cause of death was never made public, of course, but those in the medical community knew it was sexual exhaustion that led to coronaries or strokes.

The effects of the fog faded quickly but there were consequences. Nine months later there was a spurt in the birthrate in Pasadena. There were divorces, separations, even the occasional wedding.

Leonard showed up a few days later, scratched, bruised but unwilling to share any details of his ordeal. He and Penny ended their relationship without any hard feelings and Leonard returned to New Jersey and sought counseling.

Howard rarely strayed from his mother's house although he had a constant stream of ladies who spent the night but never returned. Poor Raj found himself the kept man of a rather large dominatrix from North Hollywood. He couldn't have been happier.

Sheldon Cooper and Penny Queen seemed to avoid each other's company. Sheldon returned to work and had a breakthrough in his research and was certain to receive the Nobel Prize before he was 40. Penny drifted from one guy to another, never seeming to find whatever it was she was searching for.

Finally, in desperation, she decided to confront Sheldon about that night. Somewhere he'd feel in control - his office. He wasn't there so she decided to wait for him. She'd never been in his office before. He'd never invited her and Leonard had never taken her past the labs (or the storage closet) when she visited.

The door opened and he just stopped and stared.

"Hello, Shelly…been waiting for you…"

Much to the surprise of friends and family, Sheldon and Penny eloped and moved to Texas where they lived out their lives in quiet seclusion. Penny wrote a book under a pseudonym, Serenity Knight, that detailed the events of the Night of the Yellow Fog from her perspective. It was on the NY Times' bestseller list for 70 weeks. Sheldon gave the occasional lecture as fitting for a Nobel Laureate but never strayed far from his wife's side.

Whenever Sheldon was asked about the Night of Yellow Fog, he would just smile a secret smile and wink at his wife.