Author's note: I just watched youtube clips from the Last of Us series. I played the game back in 2018 (which actually led me to make a bet with my friend that within the next 20 years we would face a pandemic lol and oh how I wished I would not have won that) and it already made me feel quite uneasy but it was just a game so I got over it eventually and focused on life again. But the series, man the clips of the infected just scared the shit out of me. I hate that my curiousity wins against my fear so often but oh well it gave me the idea for this so there's that. Oh and I obviously will get back to The Third Way soon but I am having difficulties to get the battle exciting again.

Due to the difference in the timelines of the game and the series I will take the outbreak year of the game and the outbreak timeline as explained by Joel to Ellie in the series.

The Wizarding World's Nightmare or how the Magicals' arrogance sealed their fate Chapter 1

17th June 2013, Boston (Macusa), 1100 local time, 1600 UTC time

Alexandra Trelawney was one of the most well known seers in the Macusa, the magical congress of the USA. The young seer (a cousin to our known and loved Sibil Trelawney) was currently in Boston giving a lecture about the finer arts of seeing to a bunch of Salem graduates. Some were only listening half heartedly as the subject didn't interest them too much but they all paid attention when Professor Trelawney suddenly went stiff as a board and interrupted her lecture. Nothing happened for a while and they grew concerned when their professor suddenly spoke with an ethereal voice.

„The world's end is nigh as nature seeks balance

Tendrils of nature have evolved and will seek to regulate

The twin worlds must work together in the face of this new threat

And neither can survive while the other is dead."

The stunned students could only look on as Professor Trelawney collapsed as several adults came running onto the stage to see what had happened to their coworker. The prophecy made international news immediately and caused a lot of speculation on what it could mean during the next ICW meeting on the summer solstice not a week later. Everyone missed the context to get any useful information however and the magical world soon got back to business as usual. The prophecy was soon pushed aside until headlines from Indonesia caused an uproar.

**Scene Break**

15th June 2013, Malfoy Manor (England), 2100 local time, 2100 UTC

Our story starts in the mid summer of 2013 and Magical Britain was flourishing. The dark years of the mid to late 1990s had almost been forgotten by everyone except those heavily involved in the fighting of the Second Blood War. Hogwarts had been rebuilt within a year, the Ministry been stabilized and reformed within 5 years and the economy had recovered. Head Auror and Boy-Who-Lived turned Man-Who-Won Harry Potter had made sure over the years that pureblood supremacism would not rise again as long as he had anything to say and so the last death eater raid of any importance had happened in 2001 which saw the death of the terrorist organisation's new leader Augustus Rookwood and the following disbandement of said organisation. In the meantime Harry Potter's best friend Hermione Granger-Weasley was a rising star in the country and had become the leader of a political movement calling for equality for muggleborns, muggles and house elfs which was gaining in popularity. All of this lead to Lucius Malfoy being the only known believer of pureblood supremacism left. By 2013 he had lost all his influence however and oh how he lamented that fact. But it wasn't just his political influence he missed having. During the Battle of Hogwarts he had been shocked to see Potter standing up again and sending a spell into the crowd of death eaters. Moments later he saw his son Draco slowly moving towards the bridge and Lucius' wife Narcissa followed her son soon after which had left Lucius in a bit of a dilemma but his loyalty to his family eventually won over his loyalty to Voldemort and so he left aswell. The following days were tense as Lucius' disapproved of his wife's and son's cowardice even if it likely saved their lifes as Voldemort was indeed defeated again during the battle. Lucius stay in Azkaban (as short as it ended up being) didn't improve his mood during the early 2000s and his marriage with Narcissa cooled down significantly, nowadays they didn't even sleep in the same bed anymore. Even his relationship with his son was kind of non existent at the moment as Draco had now his own wife and son and was desperately trying to get the Malfoy name in good graces again. Merlin the boy even had managed to get into a neutral relationship with Potter of all people though Lucius was happy to see that the feud between the Malfoys and the Weasleys hadn't ended with Draco Malfoy and Ronald Weasley. He rose from his seat and frowned as he looked at yesterday's Daily Prophet again.

„American Seer fakes prophecy about end of the world" what an ominous headline. Lucius wasn't as demented as many other british magicals and knew that the yankee had likely not faked it which meant that he might need to gather some old friends, well those that weren't dead or in Azkaban which he had to grudgingly admit were rather few these days. If nothing came from that meeting he would have to request a meeting with Kingsley Shacklebolt, the current Minister of Magic. The meeting would likely not be pleasant as they had been on opposite sides during the war but he would endure that if it meant they had a chance of saving their society from it's prophesized fate.

**Scene Break**

12th September 2013, Indonesian Jungle, 1700 local time, 1000 UTC

Micah Simamora was currently enjoying his vacation knowing that he would soon have to return to his job in the grain factory in Jakarta. He disliked that job but it paid better than others and he liked the stability he had in his life currently. He looked at the other tourists behind him with slight disdain. They only came here to take pretty pictures and they didn't respect Indonesian culture nor did they respect nature. As they stopped to eat something he saw a black ant crawling on a leaf.

'Huh what's it doing so far away from it's colony? Hm nevermind but I guess if it's gonna die anyway why not eat it?' he thought, picked up the ant and ate it. He didn't think much of it as eating ants was basically second nature to him.

13th September 2013, Indonesian Jungle, 0930 local time, 0230 UTC

It's host body temperature had recently gone up by multiple degrees and the immune system was extremely aggressive, something that it wasn't prepared for. The host seemed to have changed over night too, as the ophiocordyceps unilateralis found itself in a completely different environment. But this fungi was the best of it's kind and quite stubborn and so it fought against it's (probably new) host immune system while slowly adapting to the intense heat with only three instincts. Spread, control and reproduce.

24th September 2013, Jakarta (Indonesia), 0545 local time, 2245 UTC

Micah groaned as he got up from his bed. He coughed again as his senses slowly returned to him however dull they had gotten over the past few days. He had called in sick 2 days ago as a safety measure when he first experienced symptoms of the common cold. You could never be cautious enough if you got sick after having been in the jungle. His superiors unfortunately didn't seem to think the same as he had gotten a message today that he had to return to the factory today if he didn't want to be fired. He really didn't think he was able to work as his condition hadn't gotten any better (in fact you could say it had become worse as he had lost his appetite and his hand started slightly shaking yesterday evening). Raja, his girlfriend of 3 years woke up and gave him a sultry smile which Micah returned.

Well why not have a bit of fun before they went to the grain factory?' he thought. After a passionate and unusual rough 10 minutes of exchanging bodily fluids (hint hint) in bed they went through their morning routine during which Micah noted absently that his left hand had started twitching slightly every now and then.

Getting into his car he found himself coughing again this time more violently. He waved off Raja's concerned looks but was panicking a bit inside.

'Shit whatever it is I have, it's getting worse.. I really should go to the hospital after my shift' he thought dreading the work day that was likely to be hard.

They arrived at work not knowing that the cordyceps within Micah had finally managed to adapt completely and begun to bloom in his stomach.

24th September 2013, Jakarta (Indonesia), 1710 local time, 1010 UTC

Supervisor Manasseh Shing looked worriedly at one of his workers. Micah, as the young man had introduced himself all those years ago, was called in to return to help out as a work accident had injured several of their coworkers. Manasseh wondered if his superiors knew how serious the man's sickness was because whatever it was the man was clearly not in a good condition. It was obiously also getting worse if the incident 15 minutes ago was any indication. Micah had attacked and scratched a coworker before getting back to his senses and apologising profusely. In fact the sickness had gone so far that Micah collapsed two minutes ago and his limbs started twitching.

„Man whoever thought calling him back from his sick leave needs to be fired or something. Can't imagine Micah didn't explain how bad it is so whoever decided to ignore symptoms like that is an idiot" another coworker beside him said and while normally he would have to report any insult against their superiors to said superiors he chose against it in this case as he felt the same way. He saw another coworker approaching him and Levi. While Levi went to Micah to check on him Manasseh heard their coworker out.

„The woman on the phone said that it might take a while for the ambulance to arrive as the traffic is especially bad today" the man said before his eyes widened and someone screamed behind Manasseh. He turned around to see Micah's mouth attached to Levi's neck. It took them seconds to overcome their shock before they wrestled Micah to the ground and calling for others to help them out in this situation.

„Micah what the fuck is wrong with you? First you scratch Levi and now this? Whatever did he do to you?" he asked the man who had ceased struggling after a few seconds. It took Micah a while before he answered.

„Nothing... he.. I.. no control.. I... wa.. happ..ing?" Micah slurred before his eyes rolled back and he slumped against the ground.

„I managed to stop Levi's bleeding but he has gone into shock and isn't moving" Hasan besides Manasseh told him.

„I hope the ambulance is coming soon, I don't know what it is that Micah has but it seems to be difficult to speak for him and he mentioned something about having no control"

„Shit you think it's rabies?"

„No his voice wasn't aggressive it was more like he was confused and scared even"

„Shit well then I have no idea. I don't like this situation one bit though and not just because we'll fall massively behind schedule"

„You sure you're not exaggerating the issue?"

„I haven't mentioned it yet as I was sworn to secrecy for now but the reason security hasn't arrived yet is because their dealing with a problem in the reception area. One of the women at the reception desk who had complained about a fever during the early afternoon attacked the other five and bit three of them before the others were able to overwhelm her. She is now being held in one of the bathrooms until the paramedics arrive. Manasseh, the woman, Raja, is Micah's girlfriend"

„Oh fuck, you think she has the same viral infection?"
„It is a reasonable assumption, is it not?"

„...Okay Hasan, call the police and the health department and tell them we are facing a potential viral outbreak"

„I bet the bosses won't like this but you're right, we'll never be able to sweep this under the rug. Be right back"
„Right I will try to help Levi and then explain this to the director".

And with that Hasan left the room again while Manasseh locked the door. One never knew when Micah would get conscious again and if he managed to overwhelm Manasseh while he was busy with the phone call... no he could not allow Micah loose in the factory. Who knows how many he would injure and possible affect in his current state? He started dialing the director's phone number already dreading his superiors response.

24th September 2013, Jakarta (Indonesia), 1715 local time, 1015 UTC

„Come on Mr. Napitu why aren't you answering the phone god dammit?" Manasseh swore as he impatiently waited for his superior to finally answer his call. Somewhere behind Manasseh, Levi started convulsing.

24th September 2013, Jakarta (Indonesia), 1718 local time, 1018 UTC

Paramedic Ruth and her two coworkers Wirya and Dalim parked their ambulance next to the other one which must have arrived just moments earlier considering their coworkers were still outside the entrance to the giant factory building.

„I don't understand, we are already here so why have they called another ambulance?"
„I believe I will be able to answer this question" a woman that had just exited the building said. Behind her was a man Ruth believed to be a security guard „Good evening, I am Arya one of the receptionists here. As far as I know one of our supervisors originally called an ambulance because one of our workers, who was called to work despite being sick, was unable to function properly. I called an ambulance aswell because one of my fellow receptionists had become violent and injured three of our coworkers"

„Wait what do you mean she had become violent?" Ruth asked trying to figure out if the police had to be involved in this.

„Uhh well if you'll follow me I can show you the state Raja is in but please be cautious around her" Arya said and the two teams of paramedics followed the woman and the security guard into the building and through the reception area. „Can you please explain what exactly happened?" Dalim besides her asked.

„Of course. Soo basically what happened was that Raja had been feeling unwell for hours before she went to the bathroom because of her sickness. She didn't come out for minutes however and so Utari and Dian went to her to ask if everything was alright. Once they opened the door Raja assaulted and bit them, Lois Sari and I heard the commotion and managed to knock Raja unconscious but not before Sari was bitten aswell. She is now locked in said bathroom so you can check first on Utari, Sari and Dian and then on Raja. Be cautious around her though, she is completely unpredictable at the moment" the woman warned the two teams of paramedics who nodded in acknowledgement.

„What about the original medical emergency?" Ruth asked into the silence that followed. She didn't believe a few bite wounds needed 6 medical professionals so she wanted to get to the other emergency as soon as possible.

„Right, I completely forgot about that with all that's happening. Hey Lois" Arya called out to another woman as they entered what Ruth guessed to be the locker rooms. The other team quickened their steps as they saw three injured woman lying unconscious on the floor. Ruth watched as they went to work absentmindedly wondering how simple bite wounds had knocked the women unconscious while Arya asked Lois something that Ruth couldn't quite catch. After another moment Lois walked over to her group „I'll lead you to the first aid room where Manasseh and Micah should be"

24th September 2013, Jakarta (Indonesia), 1719 local time, 1019 UTC

„What do you mean you have multiple medical emergencies and you have called not only an ambulance but BOTH the police and the health department? You idiot, do you have any idea how much time this is going to cost us?" Djamal shouted incredulously into the phone. „I don't care if you somehow think you might have a viral outbreak on your hands, you'll be lucky if todays shipment goes out punctually or you can consider yourself fired Mr. Shing. And now tell everyone not involved to go back.." but Djamal didn't get further as a scream suddenly occured on the other end of the connection.

„Mr. Shing what the hell was that?... Mr. Shing are you okay? Mr. Shing don't play games and answer me.. Hello?" he asked confused but the only things he could make out were grunts and cries of pain followed by someone running away and then absolute silence. Djamal hung up and a shiver went down his spine as Mr. Shing's report went through his mind. Multiple medical emergencies? A possible viral outbreak? Something was clearly wrong at the grain factory and if Mr. Shing was right then one or two additional ambulances couldn't hurt.

24th September 2013, Jakarta (Indonesia), 1720 local time, 1020 UTC

Brimob (Mobile Brigade Corps) Lieutenant Faminah Gersang sighed as the civilian police officer looked at her with an offended look.

„What the hell are you guys from the military police doing here? This is simply a matter of a difference of opinions between two coworkers" the man said while eying Faminah with distrust.

„Unfortunately the matter is now in our jurisdiction as this difference of opinion as you call it must have escalated as we got reports of workers having fallen victims to bite wounds" she said with a sarcastic but calm voice.

„Surely you are jesting" the man protested loudly but Faminah walked past him towards the entrace. Gesturing to a bunch of officials from the health department Faminah said „As you can see the situation is quite serious, you and your partner can come with us if you have to but don't intervene unless absolutely necessary, understood? Good. Come on boys and girls, let's see what all the ruckus is all about"

24th September 2013, Jakarta (Indonesia), 1721 local time, 1021 UTC

„Weird, the door is locked" said Arya with a frown while she's trying and failing to open the door to the first aid room. The door was massive and without a window so they had no idea if Manasseh and Micah were indeed within the room. They could also not hear anything from within so Arya banged on the door a few times but nothing happened. Had something happened to the supervisor?

„I assume this is not an everyday occurence then from your reaction?" asked Wirya besides Ruth.

„No not at all, in fact company policy is to never lock the room except under extreme circumstances" Arya said biting her lower lip nervously. Something was not right here.
„Maybe this Manasseh has brought the patient into another room?" asked Ruth wanting to get to her patient before his condition worsened.

„No, Manasseh was already a supervisor when I began here 2 years ago so he definetely knows company policy and where what is in the factory. Hold on, I am going to call him." Arya said taking out her phone. They waited for a minute but Manasseh didn't respond to the call.

„Okay this is extremely strange and not like Manasseh at all. Wait here I am going to find someone with a key to the room"

24th September 2013, Jakarta (Indonesia), 1722 local time, 1022 UTC

„Military Police! Hands up and no sudden movements! Yes keep them limbs where we can see them. You there, woman with the bun that clearly works here. I want a full status report of everything that has happened related to the incident" Faminah shouted.

„Uhh yes okay well.. uhh so Raja, one of my coworkers, had developed a fever during the day and her right leg started shaking. Half an hour ago she went to the toilet claiming she didn't feel well but didn't come out so Utari and Dian went to her to ask if everything was alright. Once they opened the door Raja assaulted and bit them which Sari, Arya and I heard so we helped out and managed to knock Raja unconscious but not before Sari was bitten aswell. We then locked Raja in the bathroom" the nervous woman said.

„Get me to the location of this Raja immediately" Faminah demanded fearing that the violent woman had contracted Rabies and passed it to her bite victims. She couldn't have known of course that the situation was even more dangerous.

24th September 2013, Jakarta (Indonesia), 1723 local time, 1023 UTC

„Huh you were right Arya the door is indeed locked" said Viitor Zwikker. The squib who came from a dutch magical bloodline had checked the scheduled express shipments that were meant to go towards Spain, Argentina and the United States this evening when one of the women that was usually at the reception desk called out towards him and asked him and his friend Abijah if one of them had a key. Abijah hadn't but Viitor still had the one he got earlier today so he offered to open the door for them while Abijah got back to the entrance to get some security to this area as a small group of onlookers (mostly friends of either Manasseh or Micah) had gathered outside the first aid room and were pressing Arya and the paramedics for information they simply did not have right now. Viitor had given the key to one of the paramedics and was now on his way back to his station as there was still quite a lot of paperwork to be done today. He heard shouts of worry and turned around. The door had been opened to reveal Micah and Levi slumped against the wall and Manasseh laying on the floor near the door bleeding heavily. The parademics rushed inside the first aid room willing to give whatever help they could but this would be the last time they'd ever try helping a patient. Faster than anyone could process at first Levi and Micah began running towards and attacking, scratching and biting their respective parademic. The group of onlookers (Viitor included) sprang into action after a couple of seconds, noone noticing the cordyceps tendrils getting passed into the wounds of Wirya and Damil. Micah and Levi began attacking their new targets but were unsuccessfull as Viitor and the group held them down while receiving scratch wounds. They shouted at eachother not knowing what to do and decided to simply held the two maniacs down and wait until security had

arrived.

24th September 2013, Jakarta (Indonesia), 1724 local time, 1024 UTC

„Here sooo uhm.. this is where we've kept Raja for now. Do you want me to talk to her?" Lois asked the lieutenant who looked at her incredulously for some reason.

„You will do no such thing under any circumstances. Gijs open the door, all others be ready to spring into action" Faminah demanded, Gijs complied and went to open the door.

„Do you think that's really necessary? Raja is such a kind woman I am sure.." Lois asked nervously not wanting her friend to be harmed but she was interrupted when the officer opened the door and was immediately attacked by Raja. Moments later Raja fell to the floor, shot in the head by Faminah. Lois cried out in anguish and tried to run towards her friend but was held back by one of the police officers. It took them a minute but they were able to calm the distraught woman down.

„Has anyone been in contact with her since she became violent?" Faminah asked while one of her officers called for backup over the radio.
„Well uhh yeah me and the other receptionists" Lois said carefully not wanting to be shot aswell.

„Anyone else?" Faminah pressed but Lois shook her head.

„Are you absolutely sure?" Faminah pressed again.

„Of course, she has been here since she attacked us. She wasn't violent before that only sick... do.. do you think whatever she has might be contagious?" asked the woman who was still in denial about her friend's death.

„I believe we can be certain of that which is why I am putting this place under immediate quarantine the priviliges of which I have been given by the minister of health personally" Faminah said and in that moment a large group of officers entered the area. She took out her radio and opened the connection

„Lieutenant Ambarita here, We are facing a rabies like outbreak, I have placed the factory under quarantine, Teams 4, 5, and 6 you are to spread around the factory and watch every single emergency exit you can find. If someone comes out cuff them immediately. We don't know the methods of infection yet but bite and scratch wounds seem to be one of them so check for that. Teams 7 and 8 seal off any entrances to the area around the factory and call for more paramedics. We might have a lot of sick people here soon. Over." she ordered through the radio. Seconds later someone else opened a connection through the radio.

„Sergeant Pasi of Team 7 here. Lieutenant, 3 more ambulances arrived roughly two minutes ago who were called here by the factory director. Apparently the director was in a phone call with a supervisor of the factory who was in the first aid room with 3 other workers. The supervisor reported multiple medical emergencies but screamed suddenly during thecall and the director hasn't been able to contact him ever since. Over"

Faminah whirled around to the shaking receptionist who seemed to slowly realise the seriousness of the situation.

„Multiple medical emergencies? You have only told me of one, what's this about multiple medical emergencies?" she asked furiously.

„Uhm, one of the factory workers collapsed unconscious roughly... I don't know maybe 20 minutes ago? Anyway Micah was called to work today despite having been sick for the last week but he wasn't violent or anything just increasingly sick. He's Raja's boyfriend if it helps" the woman told her and she remembered to have heard that name before.

„Raja... Raja... Wait wait wait the woman from the bathroom?" Faminah asked with a sense of impending doom.

„Uhh yeah by the way when will she wake up again? Does she have to be brought to the hospital?" the woman asked but Faminah ignored her.

„Teams 2 and 3. Get to this first aid room immediately! Receptionist you'll lead them there understood? Good then go. Team 1 let's check on the other wounded receptionists"

24th September 2013, Jakarta (Indonesia), 1725 local time, 1025 UTC

„Oh hey guys Manasseh is waking up. Hey Manasseh welcome back to the land of the living, how are you, wait what are..." one of Viitor's coworkers said before he was violently attacked by their supervisor. His scream of pain alerted everyone else but the distraction allowed Micah and Levi to break free of the hands restraining them and to attack those that had restrained them just moments ago. Chaos broke out as those attacked tried to break free, a third of those not attacked tried to help while another other half panicked and ran towards one of the emergency exits. The rest (including Viitor) went into shock as they saw one of their coworkers laying on the floor, bleeding heavily from a bite wound on her neck while Manasseh who had just finished passing the cordyceps onto her limped towards them. Not that they knew what exactly had happened but each of them saw something passing into their coworkers next.

„Security!" shouted two men running down a staircase to Viitor's.

'Finally!' he rejoiced internally, everything would be good now. That happiness turned to despair when the security incompetently tried to restrain Levi. The two security men ended up being bitten, one by Levi and the other by Manasseh. Suddenly Viitor was tackled to the ground by Micah, he tried to fight him off but his hand got bitten and Viitor flinched away because of the pain. He turned around and ran towards the emergency exit just as multiple voices came around a corner at the other end of the hallway, more of his coworkers had heard the commotion and come to help. Viitor was tackled again and panicked. He didn't want to die, no no no he just wanted to be left in peace. He'd never return here. Right now he just wanted to be with his parents and brother. They might look down on him for being a squib but anything was better than this hell of a situation... Somebody bit his back... He desperately wanted away from here... for the first time in Viitor's life the few amounts of magic he had in his body actually responded to his call of desperation and Viitor apparated to his childhood home, splinching himself in the process. He left behind a scene of absolute chaos and while he didn't know it yet it would be the last time he ever saw the muggle world.

**Chapter End**

Confirmed infected: 13

Confirmed dead: 1