The screen began to bubble and boil as the familiar silver door rose from it's depths, the thick purple chains corroding and breaking apart as the door opened up and bathed everything in dark purple.
From the tainted light, came a single red eye that glared at the screen before the door slammed shut and everything became static, a crumbling rose symbol appearing every so often as the title began to form.
The Ruinverse: Chapter Thirty Seven, Lisa Lavender's Final Day.
Xxxxxxx
-Remnant, Sanus, Vale-
Destruction…so much destruction loomed over the city formerly known as Vale, smoke emanating from the fire consumed skyscrapers as cars and the occasional broken airship parts were scattered across the city itself.
But the most strange of this ruined port city wasn't the destruction…it was the lack of people. Not a soul or sound was heard from people screaming or even signs of any trying to find help.
For all the world...silence ruled all.
However, as the camera moved away from a downtown shopping district, something stirred near one of the destroyed buildings.
That being a short pale skinned woman with short pale white hair sporting purple hues near the bottom, a single ahoge hanging the left side of her head, amber eyes, a C cup chest and small ass, wearing a black long sleeved coat with a purple collar, a thin gray belt, thigh high semi see-through black stockings and black high heeled shoes, who seemed to have soot and the occasional oil stain on her shoulders as she looked around in confusion and fear.
This was Lisa Lavender, news reporter of the VNN and currently the only survivor of Vale's mysterious 'attack'.
Now you might be asking, what attack?
Well...that's the thing, no one knew. It was all sudden, instantaneous to all those getting ready to attend the Vytal Festival next week.
But there was a theory that's been in the reporter's head for an hour or so.
It all started when the Atlasian fleet suddenly crash landed into the city itself, unprovoked but unresponsive to all known frequencies.
This led to panic with her flight or fight instincts kicking in and so she ran to the nearest shelter bunker in the city.
However...something happened on her way there.
"Grrrrrr."
Lisa paled and quickly hid behind a corner, her heart beating faster and faster with each passing second as she peaked in the direction of the growl.
"Grrrrrrr." growled a dull gray skinned humanoid creature, similar to a human female, with short blond hair that was falling off due to a corrosive rot near the top of the head, pure red eyes, crooked fangs, long spiky bone-like growths going down the left and right arms, rotted fingers that exposed the bones, a thick white ribcage that jutted out of the chest and caused the C cup breasts to dangle from the sides, wearing the remains of a white top and black pants, a single fused claw-like toe that jutted from the remains of it's blue sneakers, and a long white spinal column hanging from the exposed back that seemed to move around like a snake, as it sniffed the air and crawled around on all fours in the opposite direction of the reporter.
This was the reason. A zombie...Grimm...thing. She didn't know what it was exactly but all she knew was that it was dead, mutated beyond the human form, and...had a contagious bite.
And they didn't appear until after the fleet destroyed a good portion of the city.
This led to a multitude of these creatures to attack the city, their numbers growing every minute as the numbers soon reached the total amount of Vale's former living population.
But as she, for some reason, escaped the initial waves, she got lost during the confusion and now...she was twelve hours into the 'outbreak' and currently facing down a 'zombie' that blocked her only safe path into the downtown area.
Her reason? Answers. She needs to find out what happened to Vale and the Atlasian fleet, more specifically the flagship, might have the answers she seeks...and maybe a cure to this affliction that threatens her Kingdom's existence.
'Shit.' Lisa thought while the creature scouted the area in search of flesh meat, seemilly following an instinctual nature instead of a higher intelligence. 'If that thing finds me, I'm done for.'
"Grrrr." it growled before turning its head in Lisa's direction.
She moved back quickly as the creature started moving towards her, making her panic before noticing a nearby sewer drain and got a...rather disgusting idea. 'The things I do in this job.'
As the creature moved towards her direction, it noticed...nothing at all, just an empty street and a semi opened sewer grate.
(Elsewhere)
-Sewers-
SQUISH!
"Ugh." Lisa gagged while stepping in someone's crap, the dark tunnels covered in green sludge, semi yellow water and the dead corpses of both local pests like rats to the occasional human limb floating down the waterways from another part of the city. "I HATE sewers."
SQUISH!
SPLAT!
"GAH! Disgusting!" she yelled before quickly clamping her mouth shut, looking around in search of any 'zombies' that might have entered the sewer system.
As she calmed down and kept on walking after a few seconds, she took out her Scroll and saw it was currently on five bars of wi-fi, an indicator that the CCT tower in Beacon was still active.
"Ok, maybe I can get in touch with someone who might be alive." She muttered before realizing that even if she could contact someone, due to the 'outbreak' outside, it might cause any airships or Huntsmen from the other Kingdoms to become carriers for the 'zombie' plague. "Or...maybe I should just find Schnee Maps and get out of this filth ridden-"
"Squeak."
She paled while looking down at her feet, seeing a large, fat and flea ridden rat right near her feet.
"Ah...ah...ah...ah..."
"Squeak." it said while moving on her foot, followed by another rat, and another and another and another until a whole swarm of rats appeared from the pipes and crevices, seemilly running away in the opposite direction of Lisa's current position.
The problem...Lisa Lavender, fearless reporter that helped Roman Torchwick become a common household name.
"Squeak!"
Was deathly afraid of rats.
"AHHHHHHH!" Lisa screamed while getting tackled to the ground by the rats, her Scroll falling out of her hands and falling right into the water, floating away in the resulting current.
"SQUEAK!"
The woman hyperventilated at the sight of these rats, making her quickly stand back up and run away from the swarm, not caring that her Scroll was gone, as long as the rats WERE away from her.
(Several minutes later)
"Ah...ah...ah..." the reporter panted while placing her hand on a railing, located near one of the sewer exit ways, as a rat sat on her head.
"Squeak." it said before jumping off her head and ran off.
"I...hate...RATS!" She screamed in frustration before moving towards the door and out of the sewers.
(Later)
-Junior's-
Lisa grumbled while walking out of a nearby storage room full of wine, only to notice afterwards that she was in the Xiong Family's base of operations, making her confused for a moment as she walked out towards the empty dance floor. 'Huh, so that door led here...interesting. But maybe I can get some supplies here? A new Scroll perhaps?'
However, as she looked around, she noticed that the front doors were berricaded, possibly made during the initial outbreak, and no one was around, not even the usual courses that would dot a populated place like this.
"Looks like the Xiong Family left. I wouldn't blame them either." she muttered before walking towards the VIP area, the door haphazardly open, and saw several boxes of illegal weapons in the far corner, all from Atlas. "Maybe I could find something to defend myself?"
But as she moved towards the boxes, she noticed a still active Scroll near one of the tables, making her curious for one obvious reason.
The Scroll might have 'stolen' data from Atlas' main database, including the location of its airships.
She gulped before slowly and quietly moving over to it.
Boop.
'Thank the gods, it's still fully charged.' she thought before noticing that the Scroll had no password, allowing her to access it. 'Really? What noob forgets to add a password?!'
As the reporter opened every app on the Scroll, all she could find were business transactions, a coupon for a 'Menagerie Vacation', a White Fang application sheet, ten gigatons of faunus porn, and a master access key for any Atlasian doorway.
She raised her eye at the last app and decided to pocket the Scroll, just in case she ever found the Atlasian fleet, as she noticed something else that caught her attention.
A Cloak of Displacement.
"Hello, what do we have here?' she muttered while reading through the contents, soon learning that it was a strange artifact found in Kuchinashi several years ago and, after 'taking it' from the Wave organization, was found to have the ability to displace any form of light, rendering a person invisible in exchange for part of the user's aura. "Mmmmm, that might help. And it's still in the building, wait...in the VIP closet?"
Looking around the room, she noticed a small black closet in the shape of a dildo, in the far left corner of the room.
"Weird choice for a shape." She muttered in embarrassment as she moved towards the closet and opened it.
Only to reveal a single hanger on a metal beam.
"Well, that's a bust." She muttered before recalling how the Cloak of Displacement had the ability to disrupt all light sources, and grabbed the 'air' near the hanger. "Huh...it's actually soft. Mmmm, now to find some firearms. Maybe a bodysuit."
As she placed the cloak over her body, everything began to fade to white.
(Later)
-Downtown Vale-
'Ok.' Lisa thought while currently holding several pistols on her back, via several gun holsters, as she carefully moved across the zombie infested city towards the center of this former metropolis, using the cloak to keep herself unseen by all. 'I should be armed and ready for anything I run across.'
As she quickly moved down the dark alleyways, several of the zombies began to move, either by slithering like snakes or flying like hawks, across the buildings, looking for anything remotely alive or uninfected.
'Disgusting.' she thought before nearly falling down the edge of a massive three mile deep crater, the ruined remains of an Atlasian airship halfway embedded within the metal, rock and sludge of Vale's former metro system. "Ok, let's not go there.'
But as she looked upon the massive ship, she recalled that she needed to get to it, look for the information needed to not only learn about the 'plague's' origins, but also to find a cure for the ravenous zombies.
Overall, she was at her destination...but how was she supposed to get DOWN there!?
"Well...this sucks." Lisa muttered to herself before noticing a turquoise and black hoverboard sticking out from the side of a building, possibly a weapon or object from a Vytal Festival attendees. "Hmmm, hello new transportation."
Moving towards the hoverboard, the former reporter smirked and pulled it out of the rubble, making sure not to cause too much noise as she began to tinker with the hoverboard a little.
"Mmm, this is actually interesting. If I had met the owner, maybe we could've been good pals...or at least a one night stand. Who knows." she muttered before the hoverboard began to hover in the air, allowing her to jump on and nearly fell off in the process. "Woah!"
WOOSH!
And cue the board's color turning bright red as flames began to expel from the bottom.
"Ah!" She cried out before quickly stepping on a random spot on the board, turning it green again. "Ok...who decided to use Dust in a hoverboard!?"
"Grrrrr." groaned a large arachnoid-like zombie as it moved its long spider-like legs up from a large hole in the former road, moving right towards the reporter in the process.
"Ah! Go go go go go!" She yelled before using the hoverboard to fly across the crater, just as the zombie poked its head out, revealing a mass of shark-like teeth in the process.
WOOOOOSH!
As the hoverboard began to make it towards the halfway point.
The green color began to...
Slssssss.
Fade, the internal mechanisms breaking down from an unknown collision from the previous twelve hours, causing Lisa to panic as her descent became faster with each passing second.
'Shit!' she thought before seeing an exposed window, opened slightly by debris and allowing 'safe' passage into the inner hallway.
If she could jump that far that is...but given her training with the now defuncted Lady Browning's Preparatory Academy For Girls...she had to relearn FAST!
'Crap crap crap crap!' She thought before jumping right at the ledge, the hoverboard falling right down into the depths of the crater.
BOOM!
Exploding once it hit the ground, all the while Lisa managed to pull herself into the ship and saw that the security systems were not only shot, but most of the ship was in life support mode.
"Ok...time to find the control center." she muttered while looking rather lost. "But where exactly is it?"
(A bit later)
"No." Lisa muttered while closing a door, looking rather annoyed. "Ugh, ten storage closets and a drone deployment chamber...but no control room!?"
As she grumbled, she rested against a wall and sighed heavily, feeling very tired and in need of a rest.
"Maybe...a small nap...would help." She muttered to herself while looking around, seeing no sign of the zombies or any nearby Grimm. "Yeah...maybe there's a barracks here?"
As she looked around, she saw, to her surprise, a barracks right next to the adjacent wall.
"Perfect!" She smiled before getting up and quickly used the stolen Xiong Family Scroll to open the locks.
And to her surprise, it was untouched, unspoiled from the collision, and actually cleaner than her own apartment.
"Oh thank the gods." Lisa muttered before quickly putting her weapons down on a nearby chair and made herself comfortable in the stainless steel bed.
(Twelve hours later)
"Zzzzz."
As the reporter rested under the blue colored sheets, her ears began to pick up on something outside the ship, making her jolt awake and moving towards the window, her cloak still on her person.
"Grrrr." growled a Beowolf as it walked around the outside of the crater's edge, seemingly scoping out for any sights of life, be it human, faunus or it's own kind.
'Oh boy, this isn't going to be good if that thing calls for it's kin.' she thought with dread before seeing several zombies, each one with rotting faces that exposed their fangs, rushing towards the Grimm.
"ROAR!"
SQUISH!
And attack the Beowolf with animalistic savagery, hungry for the flesh of the living.
It roared out-in outrage at the zombies, biting back at them while using its claws at the same time. "ROAR!"
The zombies began to jump and overwhelm the Grimm with numbers and teeth as Lisa felt...rather disgusted at this sight.
"Yeah...I think I should go and get that cure now." she muttered before putting her holster of weapons on her shoulders and quickly ran down the hallway, hunting for the control center and it's dark secrets.
(Several minutes later)
Swish.
"Ugh." Lisa groaned while the door she opened was another supply closet. "If those things don't kill me, the massive disappointment WILL!"
Swish.
"I really hate this, just how many storage closets does Atlas even have?" she muttered before opening another door, revealing another storage closet. "It's like they made all this extra space just to waste time."
Swish.
As she opened the next door...she looked inside and discovered the control room, at last, but...it was covered in the bloodied remains of Atlasian soldiers and Huntsmen, all in various stages of mutilation as the blood dripped onto the various computer panels.
"Well, at least they're not zombies." She muttered while trying not to throw up, walking and closing the door shut to prevent anyone from entering, either zombies or Grimm.
But as she moved to the controls, she noticed that most of the power was running empty and, while she could restart everything, she felt like that would lead to a lot more trouble than it's worth.
Then she got a smart idea, why not jack in her Scroll into the Atlasian airship's database? Get the information she needed without accidentally activating the security system.
"Let's hope this works and NOT blows up in my face." She muttered before pulling out her Scroll, extended the connector cord, and plugged it into the nearby console.
Beep...beep...beep...
[1%...2%...3%...]
"Well, at least it's something, even if it is slow as hell."
(Two hours later)
[15%...16%...17%...]
"UGH! Come on! Upload already!" she groaned while currently laying on the ground, on her back and looking rather annoyed as her legs kicked in the air a few times.
(Five hours later)
[40%...41%...42%...]
"Oh come on!" Lisa groaned while currently pacing around the room, avoiding the corpses and occasionally stepping on a puddle of blood and brain matter. "Ew! Not my favorite shoes!" 'I just cleaned them!'
(Ten hours later)
[87%...88%...89%...]
"You know what?" the reporter said while gripping her hands at the air, looking rather perplexed and miffed. "I don't care anymore! Be slow! Like I care that the world is full of fucking zombies! Oh no! Ugh….why me!?"
(Twelve hours later)
[97%...98%...]
"Zzzzzz." Lisa snored as she was currently taking a nap on the chair, her face pressed against the broken monitor as she really didn't care anymore, given that she was in a room full of corpses.
That and she really got used to the smell…as morbid as it appeared.
[100%]
PING!
"Zzzz…eh?" she groaned while slowly opening her left eye, seeing her Scroll light up with a green checkmark symbol on its screen, making her quickly stand up with a grin. "Yes! Finally!"
As the screen flickered to life once more, Lisa noticed two audio files, all Atlasian Military based, on her Scroll…and nothing else, making her feel jipped.
'What a rip-off! I waited for hours and I got two audio files!?' she thought with a groan. 'Well…maybe they are important, if not I'm going to jump out the nearest window.'
Click.
Sizzzz.
[Log 1968: Report 1954. It has been ten months since the first experiments on Compound Z-G yielded it's horrifying results. An airborne compound, artificially created from the notes of one Dr. Merlot, inserted with the preserved compounds of various captured Grimm and allowed access to live subjects, Compound Z-G is the next step in the unseen war. However, subjects injected with Compound Z-G, instead of the intended results of allowing said subjects the ability to utilize 'magic', mutated subjects into undead Grimm-like beasts. Tests on the subjects, once restrained, yielded surprising results: tolerance to pain, increased strength and durability, basic problem solving skills, and, to the horror of my compatriots, advanced regeneration of the subject's body, limited only by the slow rate of decomposition. Limited testing also revealed a highly contagious bite, capable of instantly killing a target and converting them into one of the 'undead', although the variety and severity of the mutations range from normal in appearance to monstrous and unpredictable. The use of Compound Z-G is still pending and, once the Vytal Festival is concluded, will be flown from it's sealed container on KA Ironwood, to Atlasian Base 45 in the Snowbound Forest. Project White Queen Director Wesker, Signing off.]
"...what!?" Lisa yelled in disbelief while looking at her Scroll in horror, especially after learning that it WAS Atlas that made the zombies in the first place. "Oh, those sons of a bitch!"
As she narrowed her eyes, she looked upon the second audio file and clicked it, hoping that somehow there was a potential cure for this apocalyptic Atlasian created plague.
'Please let this have something good.'
Click.
Sizzzz.
[Log 1996: Report 2006. Subjects of Compound Z-G have recently exhibited limited sentience, possibly an after-effect of their residual memories, although further tests are needed in order to prove the subject's sentence level. Among other details, subjects have…started to search for weaknesses to their containment units. Thus, behind the backs of the Atlasian Science Division, I, Director Ada Wesker, have developed a possible 'cure' for Compound Z-G's genetic rewiring effects. However, the materials needed are located only in a land called the 'Grimmlands', which is top secret to all but Level Eta classed members of the Science Division. To obtain these materials, which are encoded within this audio log for safety reasons, one must travel to these lands and ask the Black Queen, but that is all I can say without being discovered. I must cut this short, I heard them breaking the glass…and it's getting louder. Project White Queen Director Wesker, Signing off….for the last time.]
Lisa blinked while noticing that the audio file's date was exactly seventy two hours before the flagship crashed into Downtown Vale, making her feel a shiver of fear as she cocked her left eyebrow up. "Encoded in the audio log? I might have some experience with hacking, but I'm not that good. Mmmm, I better get this to Atlas, maybe they can figure it out…and what in all hell is a Grimmland?" 'Like…a Grimm home base? Oh, fuck that would be horrifying!'
As she began to walk towards the doors, a sudden idea entered her mind.
Instead of traveling to Atlas herself, why not broadcast her findings by radio?
It could work, given the infected 'zombies' didn't seem to have good hearing and even when she was close by, they only relied on sight and smell, and with her Cloak of Displacement on her person, the only thing that could get her killed was their sense of smell.
But even then, she bathed in the sewer system, even if they could smell her, perhaps they can't eat anything related to fecal matter?
'Mmmmmm, that could work. Plus I think it would be the fastest way to get everything back to normal, and then, I'll be remembered as a hero.' she said with a smirk, the idea of finally being respected outside the reporting field tempted her down this relatively 'easy' path. 'Plus, I doubt that my shoes will survive the trip or me in general.'
Moving towards the console, Lisa began to plug her Scroll into the jack and began to use it's 'illegal' content to power up the ship once more, allowing for the built in communication systems to reactivate, giving her a platform to her 'new' story.
Click.
Click.
Click.
[Activating CCTS Broadcasting Network. Accessing radio frequencies….complete.]
"Ahem. This is Lisa Lavender of the now defuncted Vale News Network, reporting from the downed Atlasian airship KA Ironwood with a special news bulletin. Vale has fallen to an undead plague, everyone here has been assimilated into their collective predatory hunger, yet there is hope within this bleakness." Lisa said in her 'normal' dry tone, as she hoped her message was received. "There is a cure to this artificial plague, created by the Atlasian Science Division under Project White Queen. I am broadcasting this to the world to expose the conspiracy of biological warfare and bring about an end to this nightmare, however, you, Kingdoms of the planet Remnant, must not send your airships to Vale, I repeat, you must not send relief efforts to Vale. The plague is contagious. I repeat, the plague is-"
BANG!
BANG!
Lisa looked around in confusion as the walls and doors of the ship began to warp, a continuous banging sound could be heard as the entrance to the control room began to buckle, several red eyes being seen from the cracks and broken bits of metal. "What-"
BANG!
BANG!
"ROAR!"
BANG!
"Wait, how did they…wait….oh gods! They heard me! They heard m-"
BANG!
CRASH!
"RRRROOOAAAR!" cried out the infected humanoids as they destroyed the doors and walls around her, rushing towards the human, even though she had her cloak on, and began to tear the woman apart.
"AAAHHHHHHH-"
CRACK!
SNAP!
As the infected began to consume the woman's flesh, the Scroll fell to the ground and activated the one thing that would seal Remnant's fate.
Beep.
Beep.
The distress signal.
Beep.
Beep.
(Sometime later)
-Somewhere outside Vale-
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
"The distress beacon's signal is getting stronger." said a Mistrali Huntress as she piloted an airship, her fellow Hunter sitting right next to her as they moved the ship into Valeian territory.
"I know, and hopefully we can get in and out without getting attacked by the Grimm."
"I know, but I feel like the Grimm might be easy to defeat. I mean it has very little noteworthy Grimm besides the occasional Beowolf." she smirked with confidence as the clouds parted to reveal the ruined city below. "Woah."
"I know, devastating isn't it." the co-pilot muttered before looking at his screen, seeing a red light on his holographic map. "We are just above it, preparing landing procedures now."
As the airship moved closer and closer to the now destroyed Vale port, the camera zoomed towards a collapsed bank's rooftop, where a figure looked at the approaching him, a cracked blinked red Scroll in their left hand.
However….as the sun began to rise in the distance, it is revealed that the figure….was a short dull gray skinned woman with short pale white hair sporing purple hues near the bottom, a single ahoge hanging the left side of her head, pure red eyes, a C cup chest and small ass, curved alligator-like fangs, long white bone portrusions on the shoulders that seemed to expel a toxic black mist from it's funnel shaped tips, eighteen large black tentacles jutting from her back with ten thick white bone-like nails at the tips, long white boney nails that revealed her exposed knuckle joints, a thick exposed spinal column that curled upwards and was held together by a viscous black tar-like substance, wearing a torn black long sleeved coat with a purple collar, a thin gray belt, ripped thigh high semi see-through black stockings and bloodied black high heeled shoes, who growled at the incoming airship and placed the Scroll on the ground.
"Grrrrr."
"Grrr."
"Grrr."
All around her, seemingly staring in the direction of the airship as well, were the undead with their strange mutations and hunger for flesh, as they began to move around the buildings like a hungry pride of lions.
And as the miasma covered the screen, a set of red eyes illuminated the darkness before the sound of engines rang, signaling the 'end' of a long nightmare and the 'beginning' of a dark reality.
The reality of undeath.
Xxxxxxx
Name/Designation Title: Lisa Lavender/'Zombie' Queen (Final Day Lisa Lavender- FDLLRWBY)
Age: 20's
Affiliation: Mega Evil
Dimension: - 0001928555- 19 FDLLRWBY
Abilities: Enhanced speed, durability, strength (after transformation), agility, hearing (after transformation), smell (after transformation) and endurability (after transformation), Lady Browning's Preparatory Academy For Girls (LBPAFG) skills and knowledge, limited Huntress training, keen information gathering skills (formerly), high observation skills, criminal underworld understanding and knowledge, limited hacking skills (formerly), limited firearms training (formerly), limited fencing skills (formerly), Cloak of Displacement usage (formerly), hover-pistol usage (formerly), high pain tolerance, highly infectious bite, advanced regeneration (limited to external factors, not internal factors like decay), heightened aggression, pseudo Grimm physiology, limited immortality, undead hive mind control and manipulation, miasma creation and generation, prehensile tentacles, sharp teeth and claws, undead control, rapid self bio-evolution (in dire situations).
Semblance(s): Unknown.
[Get powers and bio for this one done.]
Bio: In this timeline, in the weeks prior to the Vytal Festival, the Atlasian flagship, KA Ironwood, crash landed in downtown Vale, causing untold damages in the process, but also unleashing something…deadly. For in that ship, were monstrous undead creatures with Grimm-like features, called zombies by the population, aboard the ship who broke out and infected the entire city within the span of twelve hours. These 'zombies' were created by the Atlasian Science Division using Merlot Industries data on the Grimm to create an artificial substance called Compound Z-G that, in theory, would allow individuals to regain their ability to use magic and aid in the war against the Black Queen, Salem, but instead created a highly mutative and infectious plague for the city as everyone became a 'zombie'. However, Lisa Lavender, having survived the initial infection by entering a bunker within the VNN building, was able to survive, locate several items of worth including a Cloak of Displacement, and travel to the downed airship, finding out the truth of the plague and a possible cure for it. But…things went from bad to worse as Lisa decided to broadcast her finding on the ship's CTTS radio frequencies instead of heading to Atlas on foot, not realizing the infected had heightened hearing, and thus, was attacked by a swarm of the infected and transformed into a new form of undead, the 'Zombie Queen', a semi intelligent and powerful 'zombie' that can control all if the undead of Vale by expelling a toxic miasma from her body. In the struggle, a beacon was sent to Mistral and, not hearing the warning of the former reporter due to not having the ability to collect radio frequencies, sent a team of Huntsmen to Vale….not realizing that they were going to spread the plague across the continents and then the world in a matter of months. Sometimes, a story isn't worth making, especially when it comes to a 'zombie' virus.