He always knew that the world was going to end.
It was always a thought in the back of his conspiracy-ridden mind. But he always thought that it would come from the government or some other human scandal, like boy bands.
He always knew that the world was going to end. He just didn't expect it to end like this. Not with him having to run and hide from the people he knew and loved.
Well, he knew them. For some, they didn't really know him.
In Hub City, it all started at three pm. A time when most, if not all people would be on their screens. The perfect time to launch a viral cyber infection. At least, that's what Vic thought it was. While he was nowhere near any screens, the people around him were. A sea of red arose from all of the technology around him. Slowly, he could see the civilians of Hub City going mad.
First, they began to rapidly type on their phones, sending messages and tweets and posts of whatever was driving them to this frenzy. Then they began tearing themselves and those around them apart. Blood spilt onto the streets and splattered on the surrounding buildings. The once quiet city quickly turned to chaos, the uninfected running away from those that were. The ones that were too slow eventually began to chase the ones that they were running with.
Vic was one of the lucky ones, he had experience running away from dangerous things. His brethren were not so well off. From the rooftop where he watched his fellow city-men tear each other apart, he could only think one thing. No matter the fact that Hub City was a more crime ridden place than Gotham, it was still one of the most populated places in New Jersey, right next to Newark in volume. The streets were packed with undead beings clawing over each other to try and reach the nearest living thing.
He just happened to be one of those targets.
The rooftops gave him the advantage that he needed to quickly get away from the hive mind below. The only goal on his mind was to get out of Hub City and find a way to contact the league. Based on the spread of the virus, he assumed his time to contact was limited.
After running across multiple buildings, He finally made it to his apartment complex. Carefully climbing down the fire escape and sliding into his apartment, Vic switched from his work suit to the one that was used for his nightly activities. He rubbed his hands on his featureless face before reaching to his ear. The static of the commlink filled his ears. That option was out the window.
While still looking for other means of communication, Vic's next goal was to escape. Looking out his window Vic saw that his building and the others around it were surrounded by the bloody masses. The only option was to go up. Thirty minutes of roof hopping later, Vic ended up on top of the city's radio communications tower.
Carefully climbing through the vent in the roof, Vic ended up in a room full of different radios. After glancing at the set up, he quickly changed all of the radios to be on every available frequency that he could. The groans of the zombie-like creatures penetrated the static filled room. Carefully, Vic walked out into the hallway. He wandered over to the nearest fire alarm system and grabbed the ax that was just next to it. Hub city might not be safe, but it tried its best to stay somewhat up to code. He broke the glass, grabbed the weapon and ran back to the room. Just as he began to barricade the door, a female voice broke through the static.
"This is Lois Lane of the Daily Planet in Metropolis. I know the world looks like a nightmare. If you can hear me, I know you're scared," Vic ran over to the radio and turned it up, slowly filling with hope, "But you are not alone. We are regrouping. The Justice League is gathering in Metropolis. Anyone with power or means to confront this, please come to the daily planet roof, if it is safe and you are capable of doing so. We will gather. We will grow. We are preparing to fight the nightmare. Can you hear us?"
Now Vic had an end goal. Metropolis was only an hour's drive away from where he was currently. All he needed was a car. Poking his head out of the window in the room, he could see that a car was right next to the building.
Slowly he began to descend down the stairs, ax gripped as tightly as possible. Every creek, groan, and other sound kept him on edge. The closer he got to the bottom floors, the louder the moans of the undead became.
As he got closer to the doorway of the second floor, the slower his footsteps became. The shuffling behind the door caused Vic to raise his guard.
It was now or never.
Vic swiftly kicked down the door protecting him from the monsters on the other side. He ran through the door and began swinging, blindly hitting all of those around him. Soon enough, the room was still again. Vic was soaked to the bone with the blood of the once human people that he decapitated and slaughtered.
The short break he was able to have quickly ended. By the time he was able to get to the car, Vic was covered in blood and had left a trail of bodies behind him. He quickly peeled away from the buildings and headed out of the city, hitting anyone that happened to get in the way.
Not too long after he left Hub City the car ran out of gas, so Vic pulled over in the middle of an empty highway that was just on the border of New York and New Jersey. The car that he had hijacked looked to have belonged to a family of some sorts. There was a baby carrier and a blanket in the middle seat. A sense of sympathy Vic grabbed the blanket and tore a strip off of it, a reminder of everything that had been lost.
After he tied the strip of the blanket to his ax, he threw it over his shoulder and began his walk to Metropolis.
By the time that he got to the city, the sun was already setting. Vic climbed to the top of the nearest building and began parkouring from rooftop to rooftop to avoid the crowd below.
By the time he had arrived at the building next to the Daily Planet, night had already fallen. Rather than risking waking up the people at the top of the building or catching the attention of those below, Vic began to throw the rubble and garbage that was next to him at the glass windows. The cracks that he had made eventually shattered into a hole that was big enough for him to jump through. Backing up to the opposite side of the building, Vic began to fully sprint at the gap between the buildings.
His leap had been too short.
He was hanging by his finger tips from the ledge of the window before he decided to enact one last attempt to get help.
Charles Victor Szasz had begun to scream at the top of his lungs for somebody, anybody to help him.
Soon, his calls were answered. Superman had flown down and grabbed Vic by the collar of his trenchcoat. The shocked faces of the other heroes greeted him as he was set down on the rooftop. When he looked down, he understood why. While the other people around him were in a semi-clean state,at most covered in small amounts of grime, he was covered head to toe in human blood and dirt.
Soon after the attention was brought off of him, Vic shuffled towards the wall and away from the crowd of people on the rooftop. As he slid down the wall and held onto the piece of rebar that was next to him, thoughts began to overcome him, ones that had no root, but they all led back to one thing.
The world was ending.
Vic knew that, everyone that was still alive knew that. When he looked at the people around him, he saw that they all still had hope in their eyes. They all had something to keep him going, but what did he have? Tot, Shiva, Myra, everyone that he knew was dead. Helena could most likely be added to that list by now, she was a strong woman, but not strong enough to hold out for this long on her own.
Not too long after he had ended his thought-filled pondering, Vic had turned to return to the group from the ledge that he was perched on. Just as he was about to take the first step back onto the flat-top of the roof, a blinding white light had emerged from the distance. The shock wave hadn't moved all of the other beings on the roof all too much, but it was just enough to push him into the rebar that was once next to him.
The nuclear explosion would have been a better way to go than how he was going right now. The once sharp pain of where the rebar had impaled him had faded to a dull throbbing. Maybe it was the adrenaline or maybe it was the blood loss, but Vic was starting to think that dying wasn't all that bad. The most uncomfortable part of it all was the blood that was soaking his trench coat and suit, making it heavy and sticking to him.
Black dots had begun to swim around his vision, distracting him from the pain in his chest. A wave of tiredness had washed over him. When he looked over to where the rest of the group was standing, He realized that no one was looking for him. No one had even noticed that he was there or that he had left at all. So, in this revelation, Vic had decided to allow himself to drown in the sleep that had surrounded him.
Hopefully he would see everyone soon.
Notes: I know Hub City is in Illinois, but I made it in New Jersey for convenience.