Young Justice Invasion, Of the Dead
Chapter 2 – The Beginning
A/N: Hey! I wanted to update as soon as possible so that people wouldn't get bored and stop reading. Basically this is what happens to each team member when the apocalypse began; I'll be doing each of the teams perspective starting with Artemis and Dick at Gotham Academy. This chapter explains what happens to the Justice League and Wally. I can't remember if Megan and Connor attend Star City College so I'm going along with the pretence that they do. Kaldur's at Star City college too just for the sake of ease. Please enjoy. Sorry this chapter's longgg but I just wanted to get on with this before I bring in the Spitfire!
Gotham Academy, Gym Class 1:15:
"Hey Artemis! Go left!" Dick shouted towards her as they both volleyed up the court.
Artemis feigned right and then broke left with a sudden burst of speed, she caught the orange ball and span on her right foot without hesitation until she was directly facing the basket. The girl marking her blinked in confusion.
There was an eruption of energy from the cheerleading group; this basket would win the game. "GOOOO ARTEMIS! SHOOT, SHOOT, SHOOT!" they yelled.
She eyed the basket, crouched and…
Klink!
The sound of the basketball ricocheting off the metal rim and through the hoop echoed through the court.
"Nice one!" Dick panted as he high-fived her energetically.
Once the warm flow of congratulations had ended, Artemis popped herself down on the wooden bench next to her best friend Dick. "Good game then?" she enquired lightly.
"Wouldn't expect anything less of you would we now." He winked "But, ah did you smell that just towards the end of the first half of the game?" his tone lowered.
"Look I've been exercising for at least on hour now," Artemis paused, "of course I'm sweating. Hey you are too, so leave out okay!"
"No that's not what I– oh never mind." He gave up with a sigh.
A squeal caught Artemis and Dick's attention from the other side of the court, their heads turned simultaneously to follow an exited brunette girl whilst she ran up towards the gyms front door to meet a boy they could only guess was her boyfriend.
"Andy! Awh I knew you'd come to say well done, I scored one hoop. Finally, the first one I scored this season!" the girl practically strangled him as she roped him into a hug.
She drew back with both hands on his neck, "Are you proud of me?"
But instead of the praise she'd been expecting, her boyfriend stood still. He was standing dead still in fact, until he let go a small sway and his eyes rolled backwards.
"Andy? Andy?! Answer me, are you okay? Someone call the nurse." Her bright face crumpled with concern.
The boy named Andy jolted upright, something was visibly wrong; his eyes were lifeless, his skin drained of all colour and became cadaverous. He was completely unresponsive. A couple of seconds ticked by, then he lowered his head. The most unholy of noises escaped, he spluttered and blood projected out of his mouth onto the girl. A scream escaped her trembling lips, but was quickly silenced as Andy monstrously dived at her throat.
All eyes were on the pair by the door, not a word was spoken whilst Andy made a cannibalistic meal of her upper body. She collapsed to the floor. A large pool of crimson spread beneath her dead half eaten corpse, it continued to seep into the crevices between the floor boards until the blood touched against the nearby side wall of the court. Confusion broke out at once, chaos distilled across the room like a distorted wave. The backdoors were flung open and children poured out.
Deep red blood began to snake its way between the feet of the children towards back of the queue for the exit. They didn't really seem to notice, they were too occupied on shoving each other. Artemis shook her head in disbelief; she could see what was going on through the windows which looked out on the school grounds. An ambush had awaited, children were brutally attacking the children which had exited from the gym. Actually children was the wrong word, they were creatures which had somehow leaked into the school. Both herself and Dick watched with open mouths as the kids were animalisticly torn into, blood was now spraying itself in a shower up the windows, howls of pain mixed with furious cries of hunger let rip.
Dick turned to her "We need to go, NOW!" he cried.
"How the hell are we meant to get out?" Artemis's voice trembled, "Those creatures are blocking us in from both exits!"
"In that case we're just gonna have to go up." He pointed at the stairs leading to the changing rooms.
The pair left the bench and sprinted towards the concrete stairs. Their sudden movement caught the attention of a couple of the creatures on the other side of the window but none of them bothered to peruse as they busy slaughtering the remaining children at the exit, that was with exception to one. A large former senior's bloodshot eyes pierced at Artemis' back as she rounded the corner to the stairwell, following the direction of her long blonde hair flowing behind her.
Slam! The corpse boy smashed itself into the window. After a couple of attempts, it careered through the shattered pane and lurched at an alarming pace towards the disappearing figures of the two escaping kids.
"Um, Dick?" Artemis panted, "Did you just hear that…?"
They both halted in their tracks and whipped round to meet the cold glare of one of the things hissing at them from the bottom of the stairs.
"Shit! It found us!" she cried.
The creature like boy remained still for a moment, slowly he stepped forward parting its lips to let out yet another low hiss. In his right hand was a severed leg, which was still twitching. He dropped it to the ground, like a spoilt kid who'd just found a new more exiting toy, and attacked. The parasitic boy threw himself up the stairs towards them in a violent fashion.
"In here." She exclaimed.
Artemis propelled herself through door closest to them – the girls changing rooms, grabbing Dick and pulling him through too before finally slamming the door in the creatures face. It was hard to believe that just five minutes ago, the pair were enjoying their teams win during the competitiveness of Gotham Academy's physical education class.
"What do we do now?" she panted with the creature slamming against the door that they were both barricading.
"I think I have an idea," he began, "if we can make it to the boys changing rooms, there's a ladder above the window." Dick spoke between angry knocks to the door. "I scoped it out a while ago, the emergency corrugated ladder above the window attached to wall of the gym connecting to the roof. The bottom rungs were removed before you moved here because the younger children tried to climb it. I imagine that it's only reachable now if we jump for it."
"How do we get there though?"
"Err," he looked around nervously, "in the boys changing rooms we have a window next to the wall separating both changing rooms. If we climb through that window over there, and then crawl along the ledge towards the boy's window, we can reach the ladder."
"And this freak behind us?" her voice trembled slightly remembering the messy ends of her former classmates.
"On my word we're going to make a run for it." Dick kept his voice level, "Three, two, one, "he gritted his teeth, "GO!"
On her way out she noticed her bag and speedily slung it over her shoulder, the pair leapt through the window and steadied themselves on the ledge crossing to the boys changing rooms. "Wally would have been proud of that!" She laughed inwardly, "Wait, where did Baywatch even come from at a time like this!?"
She forced her focus back to the current situation "You've got the wrong room you brain-dead perve, this is the girls changing room!" Laughing coarsely to no one in particular, "You know Dick, you weren't meant to be here either, school policy." She winked.
"I don't know if you've noticed, but I don't think rules really apply anymore!" he winked back at her. But quickly shut up when the irony of his little joke set in.
He scanned the ground below and caught sight of a teacher and a student surrounded by the zombie like creatures. They both recognised the distressed couple as Mrs Whence their English teacher, and her prized student Bella.
Mrs Whence had always been a lovely teacher, she was quick to praise a child and enjoyed kindly passing out mints to students who looked as if they were having a troubled day. Artemis remembered several occasions on which she'd received one of the sweet peppermint confectionaries.
But now the woman had gone A-wall, she grabbed Bella and literally threw her at the gathering hoard of the un-dead. Bella was immediately ripped to shreds, her vital organs spilled out of her chest and onto the floor in whilst Mrs Whence took the opportunity to run tail-between-her-legs as fast as she could in the opposite direction. Her escape was cut short, one of the zombies gabbed her mousy brown hair giving it a good hard tug. The teachers head rolled clean off her shoulders and the monsters dived upon her dismembered body, even Bella who had rose to join as an apostle of the dead. This situation was clearly bringing out the worst in people.
They turned away sorely "My bag's in the boys changing rooms," Dick broke the tension, "I want to grab my phone."
Artemis took one last look through the window she'd just escaped through, it was then she noticed that the monster boy was no longer stood in the door frame. "Thank god it's gone." She though whilst letting out a sigh of relief.
"You coming?" Dick shouted at her from inside the boys changing rooms.
"Why does he always do that ninja thing?" she grimaced as she crawled through the window.
"Got it let's go– What the?" he whipped round, the former senior that had been following them burst through the wooden double doors. The zomboy had literally ripped the door off its hinges, splinters hurled themselves in unpredictable directions; there was no hesitation this time, the monster strained his neck and bellowed out a disturbing war cry. Droplets of blood and strips of chewed flesh accompanied the splinters littering the room. He ran full pelt at the two.
"Er Artemis," Dick's voice trailed, "I don't think you should have told Mr Resident-Evil over there that he had the wrong changing room, I'm pretty sure that he's got the right one now!"
"Let's get out of here." She practically threw Dick out the window!
"Hey what gives?" he athletically caught the first rung of the ladder and swung his feet against the wall so that he could pull himself onto the ladder. Once he was secure he looked back at Artemis who was imminently in trouble. "Artemis jump!"
She was about to leap for the ladder, but was halted immediately as the creature just managed to catch her foot.
"GET OFF ME YOU CREEP!" Artemis screamed. She kicked its head into the window ledge as hard as she could and it let go with a groan, its head bled profusely then its whole body went limp before falling to the field below. Sounds of bones snapping could be herd on impact.
Taking no chances this time, Artemis went back to what was left of the door to close it, then to the window and gingerly sprung out of it leaving it open in case they couldn't find another way off the roof. She pulled herself onto the ladder with her upper body strength, following Dick up and onto the roof.
"Are you alright?" he panted, "That was quite a show there."
She couldn't even answer him at this point; her body trembled and heaved bringing up her lunch from earlier over the edge of the roof.
"Sorry." She chocked with watery eyes.
"It's okay," he kneeled next to her, "we're safe alright Artemis, those things can't get up here. You can rest now, I'm going to try and make contact with the team and the League, I want to see if this is an isolated event."
"Dick," she heaved again, "we have a pretty good view of the city here and somehow, I don't think that this is just happening to us here at the Academy."
They both looked over at Gotham city, smoke was rising high above the buildings. It thickened and blackened, disappearing slowly into the clouds that were now stained a sinister black colour. It was twisting into heavy smog high above the streets, the smoke had collected so much that it was hanging like a sheet lining the sky, dank and unwelcoming. It was not something someone would expect to see on a clear blue summer's day.
"That must have been what I smelled earlier," Dick exclaimed, "looks like all that smoke was from signalling fires to let people know they were trapped in their houses. It doesn't look like that ended too well either."
"Have you noticed how there aren't any sirens?" Artemis added quietly.
"That must mean this this has been going on for a while now, even during our basketball game probably." His tone was riddled with fear. "Can you toss me my bag, I'll get the news up on my phone, then maybe we can work out what's going on."
"Sure," she began, "whilst you're doing that I'm getting my uniform from my bag. I know we're in the middle of some sort of fucked up situation but I reek of sweat and vomit."
"I think I'll do the same." Dick replied.
Standing on the far side of the building, Artemis finally caught her breath whilst she slipped off her basketball shorts and replaced them with her school skirt. The jumble of thoughts in her mind began to clear and she hazily reflected on the situation, unusually her mind again drifted without warning, "If Wally were here to make light humour of all of this, I think we'd all be coping better, then things would feel more like normal! Wait, where did Wally even come from!? A-ny-way, Jade'll be able to take care of herself, dad too most likely." Her heart thumped, "But mum, oh my god mum! She's in a wheelchair. That means."
Artemis rushed to get her phone out of her bag and hit call button under her mum's contact.
"The person you are calling is not currently unable to take your call. Please leave a message after the tone…"
Beep!
She bit her lip trying to fight back the tears whilst she walked back over to her black haired friend. Her first clenched so tight that she could feel palpitations; she would not bring this up. Instead, she was going to have to start accepting things. Much like everything in this screwed up apocalypse.
"Have you made contact with anyone yet?" she made sure to not let her voice break.
Dick who was now also in his uniform responded, "All sectors of the emergency services are disconnected, the police lines are flooded and I've tried ringing everyone we know from school, but none of them are picking up. Artemis, I think we might be the only survivors at our school."
"What about the team?" she pressed worriedly.
"Sigh, Megan's out of telepathic range, neither her, Connor or Kaldur have a phone and Wally's not picking up for whatever reason. Bat's doesn't let us bring our communicators to school either so basically we're in the dark here until we can establish some sort of communication; I'm working on it though." He paused for a couple of seconds, "Here, I've got the news up so let's try and make sense of all this now."
Iris' face flickered onto the small phone screen, she was reporting as usual, although her professional tone had faltered. You could barely hear her rushed voice above all the background noise.
"This is Iris West reporting from Star City at 2:15 in the evening, from 11 O'clock this morning; reports have been received of violent attacks thought the coast. The local authorities have been called out all over the city as people have stated encountering pale skinned, bloody, demonic like 'people'. A large number of these calls were from people who have claimed to have been attacked and bitten. Squadrons of officers have been distributed to many locations but each time we have lost contact with them. It is believed that anyone subjected to an exchange of fluid with one of these 'people' will adopt their erratic behaviour. The following footage may be unsuitable for most viewers; however we recommend that this is important information."
The camera angle had drifted away from Iris and was now focused directly to the scene beyond her. Behind her lay ruin, blood spattered across the pavement as people ran, they ran and were hunted like game, right into the jaws of people..? They appeared that way at first, but one neared the camera and it was easy to notice the distinct difference between people and those 'things'. Up close you could see their blood shot eyes, and faces riddled with strips of flesh. Blood soaked their paled skin as if their bodies were inside out. Even though they were whole, well some were, it was as though they were empty inside. They lurched up and down grabbing at mere air; low moans escaped their mouths, never one word though. It was clear that what people where amidst of, was a zombie apocalypse.
The camera's angle changed once more and the Justice League's bold silhouettes of each member brought momentary calmness to the destruction ahead. The people directly in the situation were quickly disheartened again however. Aquaman went down first, he hurdled water at them, walls of it hard as concrete. Although, he had to hold back for fear of civilians being caught in heavy torrent; each row of the things he knocked back, more came. Stepping over corpses of their own, crushing their skulls into the pavement leaving bloody footprints on the sidewalk. Water wasn't holding them back, and quickly he was surrounded, no one could save him; the rest of the team were pretty occupied. And then they pounced, they leaped on him with a shocking hunger. Tearing into him as he howled and gritted his teeth, even his strength could save him. After him, they dropped like flies.
Wonder Woman went down next, Instead of fighting she moved in sync with the military to help evacuate people from the area, she flew in and grabbed children, then returned them to the safety of military convoys. After touching off the ground once again with a still child in her arms, she fell to the ground chocking on her own blood, the camera zoomed out once more to reveal that the child had ripped deep into her shoulder with its teeth. Superman too, head on combat did not work, they bit him as he threw punches, ripping at his muscular body. At first, he didn't think much of the small external wounds, but soon his flesh began to fade and he slowed down with bloodcurdling moans, Aquaman and Wonder Woman rose to join him.
Martian Manhunter; he realised too late that physic blasts didn't affect the zombies. Even if he hit them they continued to move towards him, they no longer had a mind to loose and he was quickly taken down. Green Arrow's arrows weren't effective either; he'd broken out the sharp ones. Even after they stabbed through their decomposing bodies', only soft squelching sounds could be heard. He gaged, and he was killed. Flash too, he took out a considerable number with valiant effort and speed. But the slippery mess of blood and entrails covering the floor caused him to slip and collide with a zombie head on. Black Canary's slender figure disappeared from view a couple of minutes later.
And finally Batman, he fared best, not relying on super powers seemed to be the key. He aimed his batarangs at their heads, dodged and took them out from their blind spots unaware that he was the last of his former team members. Unexpectedly, a sound growing loader in pitch echoed above the bloody screams. It increased in pitch and neared the camera until a small commercial helicopter came into view and smashed nose first to the ground. An eruption of fire and shrapnel burst at the camera. *Off Air* abruptly hit the screen.
Artemis immediately looked up at Dick, his eyes were glassy and gave of an unstable domineer. "Dick?"
He didn't even reply.
Behind them, the sun finally set. Darkness closed in adding to the sense of unease about the situation. The wind too had picked up, as a typical summer evening would. It was anything but typical though; the wind masked the cries of the dead. The walking dead that fed off of the flesh of the living, they both felt blind and exposed a top the roof of Gotham Academy's gym.
Star City College, Lunchtime 1:00:
"Great." Wally mumbled under his breath, he was not having a good day and it was getting progressively worse.
So far he had forgotten his Spanish course work, tripped up the main entrance steps. He'd been soaked in pineapple juice by a clumsy junior, and then to top it all off, the canteen was serving crème of mushroom soup.
"Great." He mumbled to himself for a second time whilst he stood in the canteen que. Even as a man who took great pleasure in his food due to his hyper metabolism, he could not stand crème of mushroom soup. There was just something about the texture and taste that make him want to gag.
Erg! He cringed as the dinner lady's ladle filled his bowl with the disgusting mix. He slouched dragging himself to his usual table at the far side of the canteen.
"Hello Wally!" Megan piped up with her overly peppy greeting as he sank at the table down next to Kaldur opposite her and Connor.
"Hey Megan," he fluttered his eyelashes innocently, "you don't happen to have any of your home cooked sweets on you do you?"
"Sorry, I'll cook some snicker-doodles when we get back to the cave though!" she beamed.
"But I'm hungry n-o-w" Wally pouted.
"Eat your soup then?" Connor suggested in his usual blunt tone.
Wally picked up his spoon and dragged it through the sorry excuse for nutrition in his bowl. "You're joking right, this stuff's my Kryptonite! Look, even the drama club over there won't eat it."
The group followed the direction of Wally's gaze until they came across a small group of students who had just entered the canteen, completely ignoring the soup line, looking like they part of the cast of Dawn of the Dead.
"Ohh I wonder if they're putting on a production." Megan chirped.
"They are remaining so in character," Marvelled Kaldur, "even whilst getting their lunch, that is dedication."
The four of them continued to watch whilst the presumptuous group of no more than seven made their way to a nearby table of freshmen. Nobody was prepared for what happened next.
The smallest of the group in costume, a blonde girl with her hair tied up in a messy bun, stepped towards one of the male freshman. She grabbed hold of his arm so tight that you could see the tourniquet effect as his veins became more prominent like they were about to but out of his skin. Which is exactly what happened.
"Girl are you crazy!?" the boy demanded.
Suddenly with an inhuman like strength, she tore his arm clean off unleashing a torrent of gushing red onto the people and their lunches nearby. Everybody in the canteen froze; it took a few seconds for the students to process what had just happened. Then, in a blur, the normal quiet lunch break everyone had planned erupted into madness.
Tables were overturned whilst the younger children hid under the ones which remained rooted to the ground. Order had completely vanished, the initial perpetrators immediately grabbed onto kids barging for the exit. More limbs were torn and carcases drained of blood lay scattered across the floor. The children who had managed to reach the exit only awaited death as the courtyard was full of the zombies too.
And Wally's day continued to get worse.
"I don't quite think that they are the drama club." Kaldur strained above the noise of people screaming, chairs clattering across the stained floors and cannibalistic tearing as more zombies immerged within the canteen.
One reached for Megan but it's second life was short as Connor punched it to the ground completely shattering its skill. "Get going. Now." He growled.
It didn't seem like their cover would be blown considering that most of the student body was either dead, or in some kind of weird comatose zombiefied state. Connor threw himself into the air with enough force to create a gaping hole in the brickwork leading to the west courtyard; he rushed through followed by the rest of the team.
"Where now?" Wally shouted dodging the dead which were already surrounding them; he eyed the clearest path to take, "Woops doesn't look like we have much choice, get in teachers' lounge."
The four pelted up the steps slamming the door behind them and were quick to block the it with tables, desks, anything they could find. Connor was pretty sure he saw a coffee machine being thrown into the barricade.
A loud sob escaped Megan's lips and Connor was quick to comfort her, "They're all gone," she collapsed to her knees, "the Bumble Bees, our friends. We couldn't save them and that's our job."
"Megan look at me," Connor commanded, "we're going to be okay, right now we need to find a way out, get in touch with Dick, Artemis and the League. And make some sense of whatever the hell's going on at the moment."
"Team, I think you should take a look at this." Spoke Kaldur.
They gathered around the large flat screen television exclusive to the teacher's lounge and sat in silence whilst they watched Iris' news report.
"Hey why don't we get TV's like this in our classrooms?" Wally inquired.
That contribution earned his a sharp glare from Connor and he hastily turned back to the broadcast.
*Off Air* hit the screen, Kaldur took the opportunity to speak up; "We are on our own now."
Megan, on the verge of a panic attack spoke between deep breaths, "What do we do?"
Assuming his position as leader as usual, Kaldur continued, "Has anyone got a phone? We can call the other two then and hopefully work a way out of here?"
They all shook their heads, apart from Wally.
"Crap!" he thought out loud. "Yeah I kinda left it in the canteen…"
"Wally." Kaldur shook his head.
"It's alright I can grab it, back in a Flash" he crouched about to speed away, but Connor's hand came down on his shoulder like a vice.
"No." He growled.
Kaldur stepped forwards, "Did you see what happened to Flash? My friend, if you slip you're dead, and how were you expecting to get past the barricade? We need a plan."
"I have an idea." Their green skinned friend -although currently white for school- had finally calmed down. "I- I can't phase shift through walls yet, but if I can get out of here then I can fly over the courtyard, and through the hole Connor made. From there I can telekinetically lift Wally's bag and take it back here."
"It sounds as though you are the only one capable of this task since you don't have to physically go near the zombies. But getting you in and out may be cause for concern." Reasoned the Atlantian.
"Why don't we just open the window and provide cover whilst Megan slips out?" Wally suggested, "The teacher's lounge is built on high foundations anyway, hence the steps. The zombies would only be able to get there arms through the window. We can easily take care of them."
Kaldur stepped in again, "I don't have my water satchel though."
"No need, if we just break the legs off some of those chairs over there it'd be easy to beat them back. You and Superboy have insane strength anyway!"
"Let's get on with it." Connor prompted them all, "Megan are you sure you want to do this?"
"It's the only chance we've got." She replied sombrely.
Once everyone was in position, Wally threw open the window. Defiling moans and hisses of the dead filled the room instantly. Connor and Kaldur lashed at the arms grabbing onto the window ledge in an attempt to pull themselves up to their next meal. When the arms of the nearest row of zombies had reduced to nothing more than grotesque stumps, Megan flew out without hesitation, high above the reach of the zombies.
She slowed down when she reached the hole Connor had made and quickly glanced at the scene below her; bloody corpses lay strewn across the canteen as flesh was being torn rapidly from bodies by those things. Their putrid existence was marked clearly by their decrepit posture and dry veins swelling on their defiled bodies. They dripped red, mutilation beyond any stretch of the imagination and their disgusting entities continued to hoard flesh as much as they could before it was savagely torn away from them by the other un-dead only to be devoured.
Shaking violently, she hovered over the table her and her friends had been nonchalantly gossiping around earlier that day. It wasn't hard to spot Wally's bag, unfortunately for her, a zombie had somehow managed the get its foot caught in the arm hole of the backpack and was dragging it around behind itself in circles. "Just great." she told herself.
Megan was not very violent by nature; she was merciful even against the bad guys. But when it came to it, she had to get on with her job to protect her friends. Her concentration devoted itself solely to a loose bit of metal piping from the man-made hole in the wall. Raising her arms, pure martin power rushed through her; green eyes glowered at the scrap metal raising it off the ground. She drew it over the crowd of zombies and positioned the metal scrap above the crown of the unfortunate zombies rotting head.
Its temple ripped clean in two, the poor defiled creature hit the ground with a churning squelching sound. More zombies lumbered over and fell upon its twice dead corpse. Megan winced; she used her powers to untangle the bag from the zombies leg, turned, and flew quietly away.
The sun was setting now. Even for a warm summers evening it was getting dark rather fast, a chill hung in the air - not because of the weather. The atmosphere was humid; she felt it on her bare skin. Sitting quietly between the main building and the canteen, the small staff lounge building came into view.
At first sight of her, the boys re-opened the window and repeated their actions from earlier. When she was safely inside, Megan triumphantly held the bag in the air for all to behold.
"Good job Megan." Connor embraced her tentatively.
Wally, wondering what'd happened to his bag, rummaged for his phone and upon finding it, scrolled through his contacts for Dick's name. Artemis' name caught his attention first however, and despite the urgency of the call; he felt his palms tingle slightly as he made the unusual decision to call Artemis first.
-The usual obnoxious dial tone sounded-
"Hello?"
A/N: Thank you for reading, sorry if this chapter rambled a bit but people were asking what happened to individuals like the league ect (which I was going to explain!), but I decided to completely devote this chapter the beginning. The asterisks a bit before Wally's point of view were where the prologue came in, I hope that makes sense!