AN: And things start to get interesting!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers.
Chapter Four: Epidemic
By ObsydianDreamer
{Maria}
Twelve Days After
"It's amazing how quickly things can go from really bad to even worse," Maria thought, rather pessimistically, as she and Bruce bordered up the downstairs reception area of the Avengers Tower.
Things had spiralled completely out of control. All those infected with the Requiem Virus had fully mutated into flesh-eating monsters, chasing down anyone who wasn't the same. The stuck together in packs, mindlessly trudging around until something caught their attention.
That something was usually a passer-by who didn't even realise they were in danger until it was too late. If they were lucky, they were killed and devoured quickly. It didn't always happen like that though. Sometimes, people would escape with hideous injuries, only to be mutated and changed into another one of the bloodthirsty infected.
Maria wasn't sure which option was worse.
Not everywhere was full of the mindless killing machines, though. There were some pockets of land, usually small, where the virus had not yet reached. But the reports coming from there weren't much better; some places had descended into complete anarchy, while others shot anyone unfamiliar on sight, fearing that the newcomer carried the disease.
"Well, at least things can't get any worse," Maria thought, hoping it was true. She took a step back to admire her handiwork on the barricade; a crudely assembled wall made from broken pieces of furniture that the team had managed to scrounge from around.
Well, not the whole team. More like what was left of it.
In the chaos that followed the outbreak, the terrible, and incredibly stupid, decision to split the Avengers was made. The Board thought that it might have eased the pandemonium; having an Avenger in each major city would help reassure people. Director Fury argued that it wouldn't work, that it would only make things worse; but in the end, nothing could be done. The order was given and the Avengers were split. Thor and Steve were sent out to the west and the midlands, while Tony was sent across the country to California. Clint, Natasha and Bruce were left behind at the Avengers Tower, tasked with continuing the operation to find a cure. It was futile though; all the scientists had fled, and now only they remained.
Taking one last look at the stronghold they'd built, Bruce and Maria headed back upstairs to the communications room, where they'd been waiting for messages from the others.
"Any new developments?" Maria asked as they entered the room. Natasha was currently near a computer, trying to get a communications line going.
"No. Nothing. We still can't get through to Fury or Coulson," Natasha replied flatly, not looking up from the computer. The lack of communication was frustrating and worrying Maria, but she was determined to not let it get to her.
"Hang on...I'm getting a signal," Natasha said, sounding a little more upbeat. "From Steve!"
Natasha rerouted the signal so that it broadcasted through the speakers, before trying to speak.
"Steve, it's Natasha, can you hear me? Steve?"
The call was distorted, full of crackles and pops, with a signal that was patchy and breaking up.
"Contacting home base...Requesting urgent back up...too many of them...breaking...-ough the..."
The transmission cut off abruptly, leaving Bruce, Natasha, Clint and Maria in silence, too shocked and upset to do anything else.
Despite numerous attempts to re-connect the signal they couldn't get through to Steve. Natasha seemed to be getting particularly stressed, lashing out over the smallest things. The rest of the team wasn't doing much better; the conditions were making everyone edgy.
Too make matters worse, the barricade on the lowest floor was weakening. One afternoon, there was a loud crash, and the sound of wood breaking, and it was clear that a horde had broken through. They flooded in, blocking of the escape routes, hungry for flesh.
"We have to get out of here!" Maria exclaimed as Natasha, Clint and herself ran through the corridor. "Before they find us!"
"There's a fire escape we can use," Clint offered. Ignoring the sounds of the infected as they got closer, Natasha and Maria loaded their guns, while Clint readied his bow. Not waiting another moment, they made a break for the fire escape, setting off alarms as they did.
Sprinting down the winding passageway, they'd almost made it to the end when a small group of the infected blocked it off. The infected advanced on them, snarling and vicious, doing everything they could to take down the three agents. With little other option, Maria opened fire, stopping the infected and creating a path. Kicking open the door, the trio ran outside into the open, not looking back.
But Natasha stopped in her tracks.
"Wait-" Natasha started, but Maria cut her off.
"We can't stop! We don't have time!" The infected were gaining on them, any minute know they'd-
"Where's Bruce?" Natasha managed to say, her voice faint.
All three of them stopped.
He was still inside.
Suddenly, a furious roar, and an almighty crash was heard. Bruce, who must have become cornered in one of the labs, had turned Hulk, tearing through the lower floors of the Avengers Tower. The building quickly became unstable and collapsed, trapping hundreds of the infected inside, and sending a powerful wave of ash and debris through the air. The trio were sent flying backwards, landing hard on the unforgiving ground, but thankfully alive. The blast had also caught many of the infected outside the tower, their limp bodies sprawled everywhere.
The Hulk, no longer feeling threatened, went sprinting off into the distance, causing more damage to infrastructure as he went.
Maria rolled onto her stomach, still winded from the blow. Drawing in short breaths, she pushed herself up, looking around. Natasha and Clint were okay, picking themselves up off the ground.
Somehow, against all odds, the infected were still alive too. Beginning to recover, they locked their blood red eyes on the three agents.
"We'll go looking for Bruce when he's de-hulked." Maria said urgently, re-joining with Clint and Natasha. "But right now, we need to get out of here."
With little other option, the three of them fled, and went searching for somewhere safe.
By the time night had fallen, the three of them had managed to construct a makeshift bunker in the lower levels of a skyscraper. They had no lights on, trying to avoid alerting the infected to their presence, and tried desperately to contact Tony, the closest one to their location. In the meantime, they took turns keeping watch while the others slept. When Maria awoke for her turn, she found Clint perched on the balcony, overlooking the city.
From Clint's vantage point, she could see the whole town. It looked abandoned; with some buildings starting to fall apart, and electricity blacking out in the southern suburbs. The stars were also clearly visible in the cloudless sky, illuminating the night.
"I think Thor's coming," Clint said as she approached. "But something's wrong."
"How do you know?" Maria asked, filled with hope.
"I can see thunderstorms forming in the distance."
Maria scanned the horizons in every direction, but couldn't find any trace of the thunderstorm in the clear sky.
"Really? I can't see any."
"I can. I always see better at a distance," Clint said quietly. Silently, he jumped down from his perch and went to wake Natasha.
Clint turned out to be right. Less than ten minutes later, a mighty storm formed around their temporary base, filling the sky with thunder and lightning. Thor appeared, looking battle worn, with his right arm heavily bandaged.
"It is good to see you all again," Thor said, sounding tired and worn out. "Where are the others?"
"Bruce and Steve are missing," Natasha replied. "And we haven't gotten any reply from Tony since we tried to message him earlier today." She went on to describe the circumstances that lead them to where they were now.
"That is...unfortunate. I'm sorry to say this, but I'm leaving again. Very soon." Thor said, looking up to the night sky as he spoke.
"Why? We need you!" Maria said, her voice rising slightly. How could he leave now, when earth was under threat and the Avengers needed him? He couldn't just leave!
"Because I don't wish to hurt you, my friends." Thor replied, quietly. As he spoke, he unwrapped the bandage on his arm, revealing a deep bite wound. The skin around the injury had turned green, and was starting to rot away. "I just wanted to say goodbye before I left."
The silence that followed was deafening.
"We'll find a cure. I promise." Natasha finally said, breaking the silence.
"I know you will," Thor said. He looked really ill, and it was only now that Maria realised how pale he was becoming. "I have faith in you."
Thor stood up, his legs shaky. "Until then. Goodbye, my friends. Hopefully, if the fates are kind, we will meet again in better circumstances."
And with that, he cast Mjolnir toward the sky. Summoning a great bolt of lightning, he flew up and disappeared from sight.
"What do we do now?" Maria whispered. They needed the Avengers; all six of them, but now three were missing, and they couldn't keep fighting like this.
"Get in contact with Tony," Natasha replied. "We really need his help." Getting out her communicator, she tried again to contact Tony, but it was in vain. The message failed to get through.
"It's not working." Natasha said aloud, obviously getting frustrated. Clint, meanwhile, was looking from the balcony to the ground below, concentration etched on his face.
"We'll try again later," Clint suggested, his tone urgent but calm. "We need to move from here though; there's a horde massing at the bottom."
Agreeing, the trio started reloading their weapons and working on a plan.
The plan to flee the building didn't go nearly as well as planned.
While trying to leave via the back entrance, they'd severely underestimated how many of the infected were actually in the area. They were ambushed. The infected closed in on them, angry and hungry, trying to get the three agents. They readied their weapons, and fought their way through. It was violent, bloody, and during the escape Maria became separated from Clint and Natasha.
It was the middle of the night, and without the streetlights illuminating the city, Maria couldn't see her hand in front of her face. Preparing for anything, Maria pulled out her gun and held it, ready to fire at any movement. Maria found herself becoming more and more edgy as the solitude and darkness got to her; she flinched every time she heard a distant noise or saw something out of the corner of her eye. She wanted, needed, to find Clint and Natasha, but she didn't dare make a noise, fearing that it would bring something sinister her way.
Creeping her way through the dilapidated city, through the broken debris of fallen buildings and abandoned homes, Maria noticed a bright, blue light coming from where the Avengers Tower once stood. Cautiously making her way closer, she saw a single, lone figure standing amongst the wreckage.
It was Iron Man.
Tony stood there in his red and gold armour suit, his faceplate up. His arc light reactor lit up what was left of the science labs with a hazy blue light. Kneeling down, he picked something up, inspecting it closely before throwing it away.
"Welcome to the end of the world." Tony said, rather cynically, as Maria approached.
"Is that what they're calling this now?" Maria asked. Her voice couldn't hide her relief; she wasn't alone in the city anymore, and with Tony's help, they might be able to do something about the infected. "Seriously though, thank god you've arrived, Stark. We need your-"
"There's no point," Tony cut in. His voice seemed hollow. "We've already lost. We lost the second those pods entered the atmosphere."
"It's...It's...It's not over, Tony..." Maria stuttered back, shocked. This wasn't like Tony at all; she didn't know what to say.
"Maria, it is over. There's nothing we can do. I received your distress signals; Steve and Bruce are missing, Thor's infected, turning violent..."
"No, It's not..." Maria couldn't say anything else.
"Listen!" Tony turned to Maria and looked her straight in the eyes. He looked distant and detached, and almost fearful. "We've lost! You hear me? Lost! We can't do anything..."
"What do we do then?" Maria demanded back to him. She was furious now. She refused to believe that the Avengers had given up.
"I don't know," He replied quietly, barely a whisper. "I don't know..."
Shaking his head, he slid his faceplate into place, the eyes lighting up. Not saying anything else, he shot up into the night sky, and flew away into the distance.
"Coward." Maria muttered under her breath. Bitterly disappointed, she continued her search through the pitch-black city for Clint and Natasha.
"I can't believe he did that!" Maria thought, fuming. "Just run off and leave us in this situation!"
She was so angry she almost didn't see the horde of infected on the other side of the road.
Almost.
There they were, a huge pack, easily over two dozen of them, scavenging through the industrial sized dumpsters. They were looking for food, and acting like animals about it; hissing at each other, fighting over whatever little scraps they could find, all while completely unaware of anything else happening around them. As two of the infected got into a particular vicious fight over a scrap of meat, others flocked around to see what was happening.
Stopping in her tracks, Maria froze.
They didn't notice her, too absorbed in their own bickering. Taking great care, Maria crept backwards slowly, not once turning her back on them, while doing her best not to alert them to her presence. She'd was almost gone, almost safe, when-
CLANG!
Spinning around, Maria realised that she'd collided with an empty metal trash can. Cursing herself, she turned back toward the infected, hoping that they didn't notice.
Unfortunately, they did.
Heads shot up from all over the place, the fighting over food scraps stopped, and they all went silent. They looked right at Maria, murderous looks upon their faces. Deciding that she'd make a much better meal than whatever they were managing to scrounge, they howled and charged straight at her.
Without a second to lose, Maria turned around and shot down the road, the infected not far behind. As she ran, she pulled out her handguns and fired several rounds backwards, attempting to slow them down. But no matter how many went down, they wouldn't give up.
Seeing a thin break between two buildings, Maria turned hard left, hoping to lose them. Sprinting as hard as she could, she followed a tight path as it snaked around and between the skyscrapers.
Maria was both shocked and terrified when the paths lead out to a dead end.
Not far behind her, she could hear the hisses and snarls of the infected; there was no way she could get out. Calming herself, she reloaded her handguns with her last rounds, and then positioned herself against a wall. She may have been cornered and outnumbered, but she wasn't going down without a fight.
As the infected charged through, she opened fire without remorse. The metal bullets ripped apart the rotting flesh with ease, sending them writhing to the ground, but not stopping them entirely. Moving out from behind the wall, she aimed her guns straight down the path and continued to fire.
But no matter how many of them she shot, more kept coming for her, clambering over the corpses of their fellow horde members to reach her. They were gaining ground, and getting closer as well; she could see them up close now. Their green, sore-covered skin and blood red eyes repulsed her, and she kept fighting, no longer caring whose faces she saw. The infected, the zombies, whatever they were called, they weren't humans. Not anymore.
Click
Maria was out of bullets.
She looked around desperately, trying to find something, anything, to use as a weapon, but found nothing. Meanwhile, the zombies advanced, brutal and violent as ever. One of the zombies broke apart from the horde, snarling, and went straight for her, trying to claw at her throat. She deflected the blow with her arm, before twisting its neck, sending it limp and lifeless to the ground. Unfazed by the death of their comrade, more kept attacking her, hungry for human flesh.
Cornered, with nowhere to run and no one coming to save her from the raging horde, she realised that she wouldn't live to see the sunrise.
Attempting to block another blow, her feet were kicked out from under her and she fell hard on to the ground. Taking the opportunity, the zombie advanced, grabbing her and pinning her to the ground, before taking a bite out of her shoulder, warm blood spilling everywhere.
She screamed in agony, trying to fight back, but it was futile; her head was clouded and dizzy from blood loss, and more of the horde mobbed on her and crowded her, each trying to get a piece of her flesh.
They were killing her and there was nothing she could do.
She could only hope that they would make it quick.
AN: So, what did you think? I always value reviews; they're helpful feedback that hep me get better as a writer.
Thanks for reading,
~ObsydianDreamer
