Just gonna warn, even though there is T and I don't go too graphic with my descriptions of gore, there is STILL gore. Also, this is a one-shot and I am not above killing characters. On that oh so cherry note, I hope you enjoy this one-shot! (I blame its existence on Marvel's What If Zombies episode.)
Reality is like a pool, one stone being chucked into it can ripple throughout. But like a tree, these ripple effects can cause the timeline to branch off into sometimes completely different worlds, unrecognizable from the ones we know.
One day, in the middle of the Dragon Riders war with Viggo Grimborn's Dragon Hunters, the Riders managed to convince Hiccup that they should take a break on an unexplored island uninhabited by Dragons. They learned why when their Dragons were infected by the Grimora parisite.
Thankfully, they managed to learn that the Grimora was weak to salt, and freed their Dragons from the effect of the Grimora. At least, that's how it went in the reality we all know, but in another... the Grimora had no weakness, and the effect they had on the Dragons was quite... horrific.
Fishlegs awoke with a scream, shooting upright in a cold sweat after the horrible dream he had just gone through. Exhausted, Fishlegs reached out to lay a hand on Meatlug's side only for his hand to meet nothing, and the boy's eyes widened. "Meatlug?" He questioned, only to be met with no response.
Fishlegs looked around to find that, besides Toothless, all of the Dragons were missing. The Riders and Toothless, however, still slept undisturbed. Not only was Fishlegs worried, but he had a feeling in his stomach that they shouldn't have come here... of course, it might also just be that he's hungry.
"Meatlug? Meaty, where are you?" Fishlegs questioned but did not hear the familiar sounds of a Gronckle. He looked around, but all he could see was the fresh-water pond, the trees, and the ominous eerie blackness that awaited him beyond the tree line. As he saw this, he couldn't help but let fear for Meatlug's safety get the better of him.
"Oh, no, it's not safe out there for a Gronckle, alone in the wild..." Fishlegs whispered to himself and then slowly began to make his way into the dark woods, leaving the other Riders and Toothless behind. As he continued to walk through the woods, the sound of crunching leaves and distant howling unnerved him to no end.
As he walked into the unfamiliar woods, Fishlegs questioned why all of the Dragons would wander off, except Toothless. Couldn't have been Dragon Root or the Night Fury would've joined them. Maybe Dragon Nip? Fishlegs was trying to find any answers to the question, but he was coming up short in all regards.
Maybe the Dragons ran off because they enjoyed the break from the extreme amounts of work Hiccup had been putting them through? Fishlegs didn't want to blame the one-legged Rider, but it was one of the few reasons he could think of that actual fit, at least in his mind.
The husky Dragon Rider was snapped out of his thought when he heard a snap nearby, and the sound of footsteps being to a large creature... Meatlug, maybe? Fishlegs slowly crept towards the source of the noise, staying hidden just in case it was a wild dragon. However, rounding one tree, his eyes widen as he looked ahead.
In front of him was Meatlug, and she seemed to be eating out of something big. Rocks maybe? Fishlegs couldn't make out what exactly she was eating in the darkness, but he decided that he would come out and ask. Before the Dragon Rider could get one syllable out of his mouth, his foot stepped on a branch and Meatlug stopped, freezing in place.
"M-Meatlug?" Fishlegs worriedly asked, wondering if he had just made a mistake. Slowly, the Gronckle turned to look at him and Fishleg's eyes widened in horror at the blood staining the Gronckle's mouth, eyes bloodshot red and jaw dislocated. A few chunks of flesh seemed to be missing from her neck.
Now that Meatlug had moved, Fishlegs could clearly see that the Gronckle had been snacking on the corpse of Stormfly, eating most of the Nadder's torso and exposing rib-cage... gods Fishlegs was about to throw up. Before he could, his horror and shock increased as the dead Nadder stood up, growling with bloodshot eyes and scales falling off like they weren't even attached.
"W-what, Meatlug, Stormfly, what in the-" Fishlegs began to say as he backed up, the two dragons slowly approaching him. He needed to run, get the others and figure out what the hell was going on. If Fishlegs could believe his eyes, he'd swear this fit the stories of zombies that Trader Johann had once brought up. Of course, he hadn't believed it and neither had Johann but...
Fishlegs was snapped out of his thoughts when the two dragons suddenly charged at him, and his self-preservation kicked in finally. He turned and began to run back in the direction he came, but as he was running he realized in horror that he didn't knock which direction that was. The rotting Stormfly and Meatlug were both chasing after him, which left Barf & Belch and Hookfang both unaccounted for. If those two were infected, then the possibly only non-infected dragon on the whole dang island was Toothless, who was asleep and right next to the Riders. Easy to attack...
"HICCUP! ASTRID! SNOTLOUT! RUFFNUT! TUFFNUT! HELL, TOOTHLESS! ANYBODY!" Fishlegs yelled at the top of his breath between pants, his run slowly losing steam. He needed help, he wasn't going to hold out much longer and the two Zombified Dragons were gaining ground and...
Fishlegs was suddenly tackled by something which burned, something red and snarling and with blood-shot eyes. Through the pain of being burned and tackled, Fishlegs could just barely make out that Hookfang had tackled him from the side. Before the husky Dragon Rider could do anything, the Zombified Monstrous Nightmare bite right into his torso, piercing flesh and organs.
Fishlegs screamed the loudest scream he could, as he slowly passed out while Hookfang feasted on him.
Toothless and all of the Dragon Riders, minus Fishlegs, awoke to the sound of a scream. Almost instantly, they were upright and alert, the Night Fury charging a plasma blast whilst the Riders looked to try and discern just what the hell was going on.
"Uh, guys, where are the other Dragons?" Hiccup asked in concern as he realized that besides Toothless, all of the Dragons were missing. Toothless pressed himself close to Hiccup, glancing at the trees wearily whilst keeping a plasma blast ready to go. Something didn't feel right, and the Night Fury's always trusted his instincts on this kind of thing.
"They're missing, and so is Fishlegs!" Snotlout pointed out and Hiccup realized that the husky Dragon Rider was missing from their group. It was just Hiccup, Astrid, Snotlout, the Twins, and one very on-edge Night Fury. Overall, this situation was shaping up to be pretty bad.
"Hiccup, that scream, it sounded like..." Astrid began and Hiccup sent her a look that said he knew, he knew what she was about to say and it was hurting him. It sounded like Fishlegs, and that one scream was filled with so much pain that it sounded like that of a dying man. Hiccup hoped he was wrong.
"We gotta find them, especially if Fishlegs is hurt," Hiccup stated and then swore to himself, cursing himself for agreeing to go to this island. Yes, they needed Sandstone but they could've gotten it from any other island. No, the reason they came here was that he'd overworked everyone and that was entirely on him. If he had just given everyone one day to take a break, Fishlegs might not be currently hurt or possibly worse.
"Well, how are we gonna do that, huh? We don't have any idea which direction they went in, and I hope you aren't about to suggest we split up and go into those creepy woods to look, no way am I doing that!" Snotlout stated and Hiccup sent a small glare at the shorter Dragon Rider, annoyed at the less than useful comments.
"Toothless and I can take to the skies and search for any of them, Astrid you can come with me, the rest of you will get to high ground and look for any signs. You see anything, you yell," Hiccup formulated a plan, he had no idea if it was the right thing to do or not, but it was the best he could do at the moment and maybe he'd come up with a better plan in a few minutes
Hiccup climbed onto Toothless's back and Astrid moved to climb on behind him, but then all of them were caught off guard as Tuffnut screamed in pain. They snapped to look and saw the male Twin held up by his arm, which was being bitten into by Barf and Belch. The twin-headed dragon had bloodshot red eyes, and there was a massive chunk missing out of one of their legs.
"TUFFNUT!" Ruffnut yelled and the male Twin screamed, the twin-headed dragon jerking suddenly and ripping the arm off. Tuffnut hit the ground with a thud, head slamming against a smaller stone. Hiccup leaped off of Toothless, and the Night Fury fired a massive plasma blast right at Barf & Belch, which knocked them back.
Ruffnut rushed forward and with Hiccup's help, pulled the unconscious Tuffnut away from the Zombified Barf & Belch. Toothless fired another plasma blast, at full strength, and it blew off one of Barf & Belch's legs. The Zombified Dragon was downed but continued to advance towards them even with two bad legs, growling and snarling as they did so.
Suddenly, through the trees, the Zombified Stormfly, Hookfang, and Meatlug emerged. And with them was a Zombified Fishlegs, burnt skin a pale green and a massive hole in his torso. Every living person presents eyes widened at this, and they all began to back up. Their Zombified friends snarled and rushed forward, ready to tear into them.
Toothless fired a plasma blast into each of them, knocking them back for the living group to run for their lives. Even though the blasts dealt some damage, the Zombies were undeterred and rushed forward, gaining ground quickly. As they all struggled to outrun them, they began to look for a place to hide.
"What the hell is this?!" Snotlout yelled in fear and Hiccup had no answer, lost with no idea what's causing this. After nearly a full minute of running, dodging between trees, and trying to avoid the zombies, they spotted a cave. Hiccup shouted and pointed to it, and everyone began to move towards it.
Hookfang suddenly took to the air and flew over them, landing in front of the cave and shooting fire at the unprotected Humans in the group. Toothless pushed Snotlout and Hiccup out of the way and fired a plasma blast right into Hookfang's neck. Unable to withstand the exploding plasma charge, the rotting flesh of Hookfang's neck broke fully and the Nightmare was decapitated.
"H-Hookfang..." Snotlout whispered in horror and Hiccup forcibly dragged his cousin by the arm, past Hookfang's body, and into the cave. Toothless used a plasma blast to bring down the entrance, sealing them inside and the Zombies outside.
Everyone sat in shocked silence, just trying to process what the hell had just happened. The only ones still left alive was Hiccup, Astrid, Snotlout, Ruffnut, Toothless, and an unconscious Tuffnut. They had lost every other Dragon, as well as Fishlegs to this infection, whatever it is. Did it start in the Dragons? What caused it? Hiccup wished Fishlegs was here, he might have some idea of what's causing it.
"What, the hell, just happened?!" Astrid questioned in shock, glancing around. Hiccup was leaning against the cavern wall, head in his hands. Snotlout was sitting on the floor, shaking and staring at the sealed cavern exit as if he could still see Hookfang's body. Toothless was also looking at the sealed cavern exit, alert in case anything should happen. Ruffnut was tending to her brother's injured head.
"I... I don't know, I have no clue what just happened, why it happened, I don't know... what the hell do we do?" Hiccup stumbled over his words, lost. Everyone snapped to attention was Snotlout got up and walked over to Toothless, pissed off.
"Why did you kill him?! What if we could've reversed.. whatever this is?! You didn't need to kill him!" Snotlout yelled and Toothless backed up a step, but Hiccup walked over and stood between the guilty-looking Night Fury and pissed-off shorter Dragon Rider.
"Snotlout, whatever this is... I'm pretty sure it isn't reversible. Their bodies are... are rotting, falling apart in places. There is no coming back from that, at least that I know of," Hiccup stated and Snotlout still looked like he disagreed, so Hiccup continued. "Toothless couldn't have known his blast would've decapitated Hookfang, you were only intended to knock him back right Toothless?"
Toothless nodded but still looked guilty, killing one of his friends was obviously not something you just get over. Snotlout arms shook in anger for a few seconds but finally, he growled in frustration and went back to sitting where he originally was. Hiccup sighed and leaned against the stone wall, looking up at the ceiling and thinking.
"We... we need to take out all of the... zombified others. This infection can't be allowed to spread to other islands," Hiccup spoke up and Astrid shook her head, sighing and walking over to the one-legged Rider.
"Hiccup, we don't have any weapons. The only one capable of killing all of them is Toothless, and we have no idea what even started the infection. Even if we took them out, another dragon could come along and spread it," Astrid stated and Hiccup felt sick, he wanted to throw up and then wake up in his bed on Dragons Edge before all of this.
"What do we do, then? Run? Toothless can't carry all of us. Two on his back and maybe two with his paws but that's it. There's five of us," Hiccup said gloomily, and what happened next would fit the classic Hiccup Luck or just the universe deciding this day hadn't been miserable enough.
"G-guys, Tuffnut, he's-" Ruffnut began and they all looked in time to see a zombified Tuffnut shoot up and bite into Ruffnut's neck, tearing in and... Hiccup mentally blanked out what he was seeing, only finally allowing himself to process what was going on when the zombified Tuffnut started to get up from the dying Ruffnut.
Toothless began to charge a plasma blast but surprisingly, didn't get the chance to fire as Snotlout grabbed a sharp rock and slammed it right into Tuffnut's head. Weak and quickly rotting flesh gave way, and the rock easily went through the weakened skull. Within seconds, Tuffnut dropped dead.
"W-what the fuck..." Hiccup whispered weakly, fighting the desire to throw up. Just moments ago, Tuffnut and Ruffnut had been fine. Now, Tuffnut was dead after becoming a Zombie, and Ruffnut was dying and probably going to become a zombie too. Did the gods decide to do this just to fuck with him after saying there were five of them?
No one commented on what Hiccup had said literally moments before another tragedy, knowing how insensitive it would be. Ruffnut was already dead, and Snotlout moved to pick up another rock when Toothless shook his head and began to charge up a plasma blast. Everyone gladly looked away and tried to keep the sound of flesh and bone exploding out of their heads.
No one looked at the remains of Ruffnut after that, they already had enough to haunt their nightmares. If they live to have those nightmares, that is. Hiccup took one deep shaky breath, put every ounce of willpower he had left into talking, and spoke.
"We, we need to run, get help, anything. We get help and then we come back, kill all the Zombies and figure out where they're coming from, and torch it. Torch it until nothing is left," Hiccup said with as much conviction as he had, but even then it still came out shakily.
"Toothless can carry Astrid and me on his back, Snotlout, I hope your fine being carried because if not then just deal with it, we are not staying here and I am not leaving anyone else to die," Hiccup said and the two other Dragon Riders nodded quietly. Hiccup gave Toothless a nod, and with a deep breath, the Night Fury plasma blasted the exit open.
Hiccup jumped onto Toothless's back and Astrid climbed on beside him, Snotlout ran outside and Toothless took to the air, grabbing Snotlout with his forepaws and beginning to high-tail it away from the Thors cursed island. All four of them were keeping an eye out for any Dragons, just in case of any unpleasant surprises.
"Ok, we get back to Dragons Edge, tell my Dad and Gobber what the hell happened here and we get Berk to come with us, we raze this entire island to the ground and ensure the infection cannot spread," Hiccup muttered to himself, trying to reassure himself that this would work. That they would fight this off and persevere...
Toothless suddenly stopped and let out a roar, and the other Rider's breathing became slow. Hiccup looked ahead and then up, and his eyes widened in horror. Meatlug was hovering in the air, jaw still dislocated and blood dripping from her maw. Fishlegs was riding her, standing up and snarling at them.
"Toothless, plasma-" Hiccup began but didn't get to finish as Fishlegs threw himself off of Meatlug and right at them, letting out a bloodthirsty screech of hunger. Toothless tried to fire off a plasma blast, but Fishlegs fell too fast, and instead, Meatlug was hit and knocked out of the sky.
Fishlegs nearly bit Hiccup before Astrid managed to grab the husky teen and throw him behind her and off of Toothless. But to everyone's surprise, the Zombified Fishlegs managed to grab onto Toothless's tail and bit down... into the prosthetic tail fin. Realizing he was biting a fake limb, Fishlegs moved to bite the actual flesh tail but a plasma blast collided with him, sending the zombie to the ground.
Unfortunately, Fishlegs had still had his fingers gripping the tail-fin tightly, and the plasma blast's force lead to the leather of the fin being ripped off. Suddenly, the Night Fury and his human friends were all falling towards the ground, letting out shrill screams as they did so.
One small moment everything had been going well, and now it had all gone south faster than they could've predicted possible. The Night Fury hit the ground with a loud thud, Hiccup, and Astrid being thrown from his back. Thankfully, Toothless managed to keep his grip on Snotlout and thus the shorter teenager ended up stuck on top of the downed Night Fury.
As Hiccup got up and shook his head to get rid of the dizziness, he heard Astrid shout and push him. He cried out as he hit the grass, turning around to ask Astrid why she did that when he felt the blood drain from his face. Stormfly was bitting into Astrid's shoulder whilst the Dragon Rider continuously hit the Nadder on the snout, trying to get free.
"ASTRID!" Hiccup yelled and got up, as did Snotlout and Toothless. The zombified Stormfly finally got tired of being hit, and slammed Astrid's face into a rock, a loud crack echoing and the female Dragon Rider going limp. Stormfly let go of her chew toy and turned to the remaining three. Toothless fired a plasma blast at the Nadder, who dodged and sent back a flame of her own. The flame sent an entire tree on fire, lighting up the early morning forest with bright orange light.
Snotlout was caught off-guard as Barf and Belch appeared from the shadows behind him, biting into his leg. Toothless turned to plasma blast the Zippleback, only for Fishlegs and Meatlug to slam into the Night Fury, forcing him on his back. Hiccup rushed to help but wasn't watching and tripped on a loose stone, hitting the ground in a tangle of limbs.
Stormfly jumped onto Toothless as well, and Hiccup was forced to watch as Snotlout's leg was mangled by Barf & Belch, whilst Toothless SCREAMED as he was being torn apart by the many zombies on top of him. Hiccup never wished more than at that moment that this was a nightmare, some horrific thing that his brain had subjected him to after hours of not sleeping.
"T-Toothless... Astrid... Snotlout..." Hiccup whispered in horror, barely managing to get himself into a standing position. Toothless was limp now and no longer breathing, and Snotlout was beginning to convulse as his eyes went blood-red. Meanwhile, Astrid was beginning to stand up with a growl.
Hiccup began to back up as all of his now undead friends began to turn to him, growling and snarling in mindless hunger. His real foot hit a large fallen tree as he was backing up, and Hiccup knew he was effectively cornered. If he thought the horror had reached its apex, then the gods were about to prove him wrong once again.
Toothless began to get up, slowly pulling himself to his feet and then roaring at Hiccup, jaw dislocated and barely attached, one of his precious ear-fins torn off and one of the Night Fury's beautiful green eyes damaged beyond recognition. The other, blood-shot red and full of hunger, held no recognition for the one-legged human in front of him.
Hiccup wished he'd never insisted on exploring more, then maybe he'd still have his friends.
Stoick and Gobber were worried, and not just about the fact that Tuffnut's pet chicken has been seemingly eaten although neither can agree on whether it was Skullcrusher or Gobber. The Riders and their Dragons were overdue to return by about two days, and both of them were starting to grow concerned. What if they'd encountered a Dragon Hunter ship and gotten captured? Or...
"That's it, Gobber, we're going to fly out there and see what the hell is going on," Stoick stated as they walked up to the Hanger, where Skullcrusher was currently napping. Gobber nodded in agreement, hobbling alongside him as they reached the doors.
Except, the doors were already open, just slightly. Stoick paused and shot a look over a Gobber, who was concerned about this. Neither of them had left the Hanger doors opened last time they checked, but before Stoick could ask any question, they heard a loud thud from inside.
Opening the doors wider, Stoick and Gobber peaked inside to see multiple shapes, of Humans and Dragons. Oddly, there were only three Human shapes. Stoick stepped forward and prepared to speak, only for Gobber to gasp and force the doors open wide enough to let more light in to reveal...
Fishlegs, Astrid, and Snotlout, all pale-green with red blood-shot eyes and rotting skin. Behind them, was Stormfly, Meatlug, Barf & Belch, and Skullcrusher, all of them rotting as well with bloodshot eyes. Before Stoick and Gobber could do anything, the hoard rushed at them and tackled them to the floor.
No one but the Zombies heard their screams.
That marks the end of this one-shot. Hope you all enjoyed it, just something quick I threw together. This is JustANormalHTTYDFan, over and out.