"Well Shit," Jason says breaking the silence.
"Yeah," Dick agrees. "That's why I didn't want you going to Wayne Manor. And why I didn't tell you about the message. I didn't want to discourage anyone."
Tim gets up from his seat without saying a word, and walks out of the room. They all hear the slam of the door and the shouting from Tim, "DAMMIT!" Then they hear a loud banging noise.
Stephanie gets up from her seat to check on Tim. When she enters the room, she runs over to Tim. She sees that he is hiding his right hand in his hoodie pocket that he got changed into. When she pulls out his hand, she realizes what the bang was. His hand is bleeding all over from punching the wall. She pulls him close and they sit on the bed together without talking.
When Tim had lost his mom, he was just glad that at least his dad was alive, even if he was in a coma. When he woke up, Tim was so happy that finally he would get to see him. And then, he too died. Tim luckily had Bruce to play father figure, but even still, Tim got absorbed in his work. He slept minimally, ate meager portions, and didn't do much to maintain his health. That was even with Bruce, with Alfred. Now he doesn't have either of them.
Barbara pulls Dick aside from the group. "You should have told them," Barbara tells him.
"I know, I just… I knew this would happen. Tim shouldn't have to deal with his dad dying again. With feeling that he could have done something. For me and Bruce, we became vigilantes to prevent more lose. He became a vigilante to help others. He was already a hero when his father died.
"It wasn't like me where I subconsciously knew I couldn't have done anything. He thought he was a hero and that he should've saved his dad, because heroes save people. And now, once again he lost his father.
"Jason will be in denial. He will deny that he cares. But he does. Bruce was his dad too. I just needed them to not give up hope…" Dick explains to Barbara. Towards the end, he ends up pulling her into a tight hug.
She pulls him closer and whispers, "I know. I miss him too."
"I don't know what to do," Dick admits. "He always had a plan. I have none."
"You'll think of one," Barbara tells him, "You always do."
"Not this time, I don't think there is a way out," Dick tells her. "This is endgame."
"You can't say that, you said you didn't want them to give up hope. So that means you can't either," Barbara sternly tells him.
"There is no hope Babs, the government is probably going to blow up Gotham soon. It's logical, there's nothing we can do," Dick explains.
Barbara looks him straight in the eyes and tells him, "There's always something we can do. Something we will do… We will help out for as long as we can. We have to live each day to the fullest and help out as much as we can."
He looks into her eyes and knows that she's right. "Thank you," He tells her.
"For?"
"For snapping me out of it. You're right Babs, 'help out as long as we can', 'live each day to the fullest.' I intend to." He walks out of the room and grabs something.
Walking back into the room he gets down on one knee and pulls out a box. Opening it he says, "Babs will you marry me?"
"We are in the middle of a zombie apocalypse and…" she begins, but is cut off by him kissing her.
"You said live each day to the fullest, besides, the ring's gotta be put to some use." Dick tells her smiling. He places the ring on her finger, and holds her hand in his.
They walk back into the room where Jason and Cass were sitting to see that Tim and Stephanie have returned. Dick eyes the bandages on Tim's hand, but opts with not saying anything.
As they enter the room, the shiny diamond catches Jason's eye. "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING?!" Jason shouts pointing at them. "YOU PROPOSED!? WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE END!"
"Do you want me to shut you up the same way I shut her up?" Dick asks pointing at Barbara.
Jason's eyes widen and he shakes his head, "Please don't."
Steph and Tim laugh at the exchange, and Dick smiles when he sees that Tim hasn't completely lost himself. He can thank Stephanie for that.
Dick takes a seat on the couch, and Barbara wheels over next to him. Kicking his feet up on the coffee table and leaning back, Dick eyes everyone. "What does everyone want to do now that you guys know everything?"
"I say we get the hell out of here," Jason suggests/demands.
"I hate to agree with Jason, but when he and I went to the hospital there were no refugees. NO ONE. There's always someone there. I think that everyone inside the city limits, that aren't in the government camps, are infected. There's nothing more we can do for them.
"I think it's what Bruce would've wanted," Tim continues, sounding saddened by Bruce's name, "He would've wanted us to help everyone and then get out. There is no one else left to help."
"Even if there were people left, we still have to get out," Jason declares. "The government is going to drop a bomb on us soon. We have to get out!"
Everyone looks around the table. "Alright. All in favor of getting out of here, say I."
First Jason says it. Followed by Tim, Steph, and Cass. Then Barbara. "Okay, so it seem that it is unanimous," Dick says. "We do a final sweep of the city, make sure no one needs help, then leave. It's eleven now. We start the city sweep in a half an hour. If we are lucky we can leave by seven tomorrow morning. That's eight hours. Everyone good?" Everyone nods. "Good."
When the half an hour is up, everyone is ready for the final patrol. Everyone has a different area of the city to patrol, and Oracle monitors them all from Clocktower.
Dick leaves a little earlier than everyone else, since he has the longest journey to make. He runs along the rooftops, looking for anyone that needs help, but all he sees are zombie like figures in hoards.
There are so many of them, and they are all over. Dick thinks about how they will all die and how he can't help them. No matter how much he wants to, he isn't a genius bioengineer. He can't help cure this disease. He can't help them.
He is brought out of his thoughts by an infected charging at him. He jumps over it, dodging it narrowly. It swings at where his body would have been, had he not jumped.
Dick pulls his escrima stick out, and taps the button, making electricity surge through it. He gets close to the infected and taps the stick to it, immobilizing it.
He continues running. He jumps onto the next building. Then the next. He continues going until he reaches another one of the 'safehouses', aka an old abandoned orphanage, that civilians typically use.
The door is stuck, but using his shoulder, he budges it free. He walks through the doorframe and observes his surroundings. He listens for any hint of human life. Anything. A tapping. He hears a tapping.
He walks cautiously towards the tapping sound, until he sees a small figure in the corner tapping on the wall compulsively, like they're worried. A child. He walks up to the child, "It's okay kid." He places his hand on the child's shoulder, and the kid slowly turns around.
The child's eyes are sad, wet with tears. "Please, my mommy was infected. She killed my brother and sister... She bit me then someone shot her… Please end it. Before…. Before I become one of them." The child cries falling into Dick's shoulder. "Please."
"I… I can't," Dick replies horrified by the request.
The child's eyes plead, "PLEASE… Before I become like them… Please…. I just want to see my family again."
"I'm sorry… I just… I can't," Dick tells the young child.
The child clears his throat. "It's okay, I'll just end it myself." The child walks over to the window, and steps onto the window sil.
"NO!" Dick shouts reaching to grab the child, but it's too late. Dick stares horrified as the child plummets to his death. Dick feels sick to his stomach. He didn't sign up for this.
The rest of the search for Dick was uneventful, so he heads back to the Clocktower. When he arrives back everyone was already there. And they are crowded around Tim. Oh no.
"Timmy?" Dick asks. He walks over to Tim to see him clutching his hand.
"An infected spit on my hand, Dick. I don't have much time," Tim says looking at Dick. He turns suddenly to Jason, "Amputate my arm. It's the only way, if I can cut off the infection before it reaches the rest of my body, we'll be good."
Jason's eyes widen, "Are you kidding? I can't do that?"
"Why not? It's either that or you put a bullet in my brain," Tim tells him.
"Okay," Jason declare. "Get me the bottle of vodka you have, and a lot of paper towels. And the largest knife you have."
Dick and Barbara give him what he needs, and then leave the room. They wait with Cass and Stephanie in a different room. "He will be fine," Cass assures them. And they believe her. And then the procedure starts.
First the screaming starts. They hear Tim screaming his head off. Even with the alcohol numbing the pain, it's still painful. The screaming goes on for at least ten minutes, but it feels longer. After the ten minutes though, Tim passes out from the pain.
Jason walks out of the room about twenty minutes after Tim passes out. His clothing soaked in blood. He doesn't say anything, but they can all tell that he is nauseated.
Jason walks into his room and changes clothing and then walks back into where Tim is. Then they figure Tim wakes back up, because Jason starts shouting, "SIT THE FUCK DOWN!"
Jason walks back out of the room, red in the face, obviously annoyed. Jason grabs duct tape and walks back into the room where Tim is. They hear Tim shouting, "JASON! GET OFF OF ME!" Then his screaming is cut short by, what everyone expects is duct tape going over his mouth.
Jason walks back out of the room, with less duct tape in his hand then when he started. He lets out a heavy sigh, "He wouldn't just sit down."
"That why you duct taped his mouth?" Dick asks.
"He wouldn't shut up either," Jason declares. "You guys can go in and see him if you want," Jason says motioning to the door.
They all begin walking toward the door and opened it. When they enter, they see Tim lying on the center table with his mouth taped shut, his legs taped to the table and his right arm taped to the table.
As they get closer, they see that Tim's left arm is missing from the elbow down. They look at the stump, seeing that it is wrapped in bandages all around.
Stephanie is the first one to approach him. She carefully pulls the duct tape from his mouth. When the tape is completely removed he screams, "WHAT THE HELL JASON?!"
"Sorry…" Jason tells him.
"How do you feel?" Stephanie asks him.
"My arm's sore," He admits jokingly.
She looks at him sympathetically, "I'm sorry about your arm."
"Don't be," he tells her. "It was my own fault that I got it infected."
"Don't do that," Dick tells him walking over towards him.
"Do what?" Tim asks.
"Don't blame yourself for everything," Stephanie finishes for Dick.
"I'm admitting my failure, not blaming myself for everything."
"It was my fault that you got infected, I should have wrapped your hand better," Stephanie admits.
"It's nobody's fault. Everyone should just shut the hell up!" Jason interrupts. Everyone silences, and Jason begins speaking again, "Tim won't be able to get up and leave for another couple of days. So…"
"I can get up now," Tim interrupts trying to pull free from the duct tape.
Stephanie pushes his chest down, "Don't even try."
"I'm fine…" he says starting to move, but grunts in pain when he moves. "Really... I am."
Dick glares at him, "You're not. Rest for now. We will leave in twentyfour hours, until then, sleep." Dick walks out of the room with Barbara, Jason, and Cass, leaving Stephanie sitting next to Tim.
Standing outside the room, Dick, Barbara, Jason and Cass discuss the plan and how it will be affected. "I don't like it, Dick," Jason tells him. "He lost a lot of blood from the amputation."
"I know Jay, but that was the only way to make him rest. He needs it." Dick says.
"He not ready to leave in twentyfour hours," Cass agrees.
The four of them look at each other for a while, the air reeks of seriousness. Finally, Jason announces, "I need a beer," before walking off toward the kitchen. He returns a minute later with a glass bottle in his hand. He pries the cap off and puts the drink to his lips.
He downs the entire bottle and places it on the table. "We all need to relax," Jason declares.
"Jason Todd, the voice of reason," Barbara teases, "What, your beer tell you that?"
"Well he couldn't come up with that on his own," Dick says joining in on the joking.
Jason punches Dick lightly on the arm, muttering, "Asshole."
"Don't you mean dick?" Barbara questions.
"No. No, he's a HUGE DICK!" Jason shouts laughing as he grabs a case of beers, and hands one to Barbara and one to Dick, keeping one for himself. He would've handed one to Cass as well, but she doesn't drink.
"How would you know that he has one?" Barbara asks laughing.
Jason spits out the beer that he was sipping, and Dick starts cracking up. "I know how you know," Jason says once Barbara is sipping her drink.
Barbara in return spits her drink out from laughing so hard, but her cheeks turn a bright shade of red contradictory to her laughing.
So caught up in their laughing, that they didn't realize that the door knob turned. Out walks Tim.
"Can you guys quiet down, I was trying to sleep," Tim jokes.
"What the fuck?" Jason asks laughing. "How'd you get out?"
Tim starts laughing, "I wasn't in Arkham, Steph was guarding, and she kind of fell asleep."
Jason smiles taking another sip of his beer. "That why there's drool by your crotch?" Jason asks, making Tim look down at his pants, making Jason laugh harder.
Everybody else joins in on the laughing as well. Finally, a blonde mop of hair walks into the room. "Guys… Tim is tryying to sleeeep!" Stephanie tells them, before her eyes land on Tim. "Tim? How'd you get out?" She asks.
Tim starts chuckling, "You fell asleep, Steph."
She looks confused for a second and then her mind catches up to her facial expression, "Oh yeah." Resulting in everyone else starting to laugh.
"So Steph, you leave the drool by his dick?" Jason asks casually, picking up where he left off in his joke.
She looks down at his pants then turns a bright shade of red, causing Jason start to laughing his ass off, and Dick slapping Jason's arm jokingly.
Eventually Tim interupts Jason's laughing, "We got any advils?"
"That why you came in here in the first place?" Dick asks.
"No, I got up because you guys were being loud, but now I also want an advil," Tim admits.
"Just drink a beer," Jason says offering him one, "It numbs the pain a helluva a lot better."
Barbara eventually returns, though no one had noticed she left, since they were all laughing at Tim's reaction to the taste of beer. "Here," she says tossing him the container of advil.
He opens the container and pops two pills in his mouth. "Thanks Babs," he says.
"No problem," she says.
They are silent momentarily, but once again, to no one's surprise, Jason ruins it. "WAIT! I have a very serious question!" He shouts in Dick's ear.
"I think he's had too much to drink," Dick announces, grabbing for Jason's bottle. Before he can though, Jason reaches for one of the empty bottles and swings at Dick with it. Dick easily dodges and shouts at him, "REALLY!?"
Jason gives back a goofy grin in response. "That'ssssss a warning," his speech slurs.
"No it wasn't, it was just you're too drunk to actually hit me," Dick counters.
"SHIT!" Jason shouts at him.
"What now?" Dick asks him, genuinely confused at the outburst.
"I forgot my FUCCKING QUESSSTION!" Jason shouts at him, obviously agitated.
Dick loses it and starts laughing. He is soon joined by Barbara, Tim, and Stephanie. Cass remains quiet, but she does crack a smile.
"WAIT! I remememember," Jason slurs. "Timmmm, are you gonnna get like… a robotic arm now? Like… Like ROBOCOP! Weeee could... call you ROBOROBIN!" Jason shouts excitedly at his idea.
Dick starts laughing even harder than before. "What? You… you don'ttt like me idea?" Jason asks saddened.
"No, I love it Jay!" Dick says through his laughs. His eyes begin tearing from how much he is laughing.
"GREEEAT!" Jason shouts, turning his frown into a smile.
Jason's drunkness goes on for another hour, before he passes out. He wakes up about eleven hours later, and his head hurts.
"FUCK!" He shouts. "My head hurts like a bitch!"
"Wonder why," Dick remarks sarcastically.
"Stop being a baby," Tim calls from in the kitchen, "I got my arm chopped off, and I'm still not complaining."
"Because you no longer have both arms, I'm not gonna beat the shit out of you. Just know that that's the reason, not because my head hurts so much," Jason declares.
"Whatever you say Jason," Tim mocks.
Jason thinks about saying something along the lines of, 'You know what, fuck it, I'll beat you with your amputated arm,' but decides against it. Instead he decides to ask, "So, when is our window for leaving?"
"We were thinking in twelve hours, after it's been dark for a little while," Barbara announces from the kitchen.
Jason nods his head and begins getting up, "I should be good by then."
Almost twelve hours later, it is dark out. Everyone is putting on their gear, and loading their arsenal. Jason pulls out his twin pistols, and counts the bullets. 21. He grabs his knife off the table and sheaths it in his boot.
Tim acts like he is prepared and ready, though on the inside, he scared to death. He doesn't want to screw up again. He can't screw up again.
They all come up with a formation that makes sure that Tim isn't left open to any attacks from the left side, where he is weak. Of course they make the formation without his knowledge, while he was in the bathroom, so he doesn't get annoyed at them.
They are finally ready to leave. Everybody makes sure one last time, that they have everything they need, and they are off.
The biggest flaw in their plan was how they were to move Barbara around. She basically had to cling to Dick's back for several hours, as they made their way out of the city.
The first time they experience any trouble is about twenty minutes into their journey. They land on a rooftop where several infected, were bunched up. Dick lays Barbara down against the wall, and takes a defensive position to block her from any infected that come their way.
The fight is over quickly, with Cass, Tim, Steph, and Jason, easily taking out the five or so infected that were there. Even Tim, with his missing appendage, was still a great tactician, and as so didn't have much difficulty.
Dick picks Barbara back up and they continue on their journey. They run along rooftops, through Gotham's polluted air. Quickly, quietly, and efficiently making their way across the city.
They run into trouble again as they are about to cross the bridge that leads out of Gotham. The bridge was blown up, so no infected could cross, so they had planned to swing over. The thing is though, that it is pretty hard to swing across when there are about a hundred infected. "Shit," Jason mutters.
"What do you want to do?" Tim asks Dick.
"I'll hold them off," Jason declares.
"Jason…" Dick begins, but is cut off by Jason.
"It's not up for discussion. I hold them off until you guys can swing across. Then, I'll join you," Jason explains.
"You better," Stephanie tells him.
He nods his head, and they all jump off the building and rush into the crowd. Tim and Jason create a path for everyone. Jason using his guns, and Tim using his bo staff to keep the infected at arms length.
Tim swings his bo staff hard, knocking the last of the infected, in their path, off of the bridge and into the water. Dick takes out his grapple and fires it off. He along with Barbara on his back, swing to safety.
Cass, Stephanie, Tim, and Jason, continue to fight until Dick and Barbara are across. "You next replacement!" Jason shouts.
Tim looks as though he will argue, however both Stephanie and Cass nod their heads in agreement with Jason. Tim angrily puts away his bo staff, and then pulls out his grappling hook. He fires it off, and he too, swings off to safety.
When Tim is fully across, Cass motions for Stephanie to follow. Stephanie pulls out her grappling hook and fires it off. She begins swinging. Then the metal that her grapple was attached to snaps.
She begins falling. Jason turns his back when he hears the screaming. Luckily though, Dick swoops in to save her, just in time.
Not so lucky, when Jason turns his back, he feels a sharp pain by his neck. The damn thing big through his armor. "Cass you go now," he tells her, trying to sound calm.
She notices the slight alteration in his voice and looks at him. "You're hurt," She tells him sullenly.
"It's nothing," he tells her, as he fights off more of the infected. He pulls out his knife, and begins slicing at their main arteries and blood vessels.
"You were bit," She says keeping the sad tone to her voice. "You aren't going to come?" she asks, though it's more of a statement.
"You know that now… now I can't. I'm sorry. Tell the others that I'm sorry about this, and that I'll miss them." He takes out his grapple and attaches it to Cass's boot, and fires it off. She goes flying with the grapple, leaving Jason alone with the infected.
"Still got one last trick," Jason says to himself, as a hoard approaches him. He reaches into his belt, and pulls out a small device.
He methodically rubs the device, until he is overrun. He pushes the button.
Dick sees Cass hanging from the grapple. He fires off his and grabs her down. "Jason is infected!" She shouts at him. "He's going kill himself," she tells Dick.
Dick's eyes widen at the realization. He sees Cass get down, and he swings off toward the other side of the bridge. Toward Jason.
Before he can reach him though, an explosion sends him flying. Cass swings in and grabs him before he hits the water, but the explosion knocked a lot out of him. As she brings him back to the others, all he says is ,"Jaaasonn."