When Percy woke up the next morning to the sunlight shining through his window, a wave of despair racked his entire body. He'd thought everything that had happened in the past 24 hours was just a nightmare, that he'd wake up and everything was back to normal. No zombies, no Clarisse, nothing.

Yet as he lay there in his flight suit, he knew that it was all real. This was his life now. He'd seen dozens of zombie movies but he never thought he'd end up in one himself. Sure, everyone loved to say how much of a badass they'd become in a zombie apocalypse but that was all just for fun, he was terrified. He could handle fighting a war in the skies, he could handle being lost at sea after being shot down, but this, this was fucked.

Percy sat up and looked out the window, he didn't see any zombies on the street but he knew better, they were definitely around.

Come to Florida, his mom's voice repeated in his mind.

Right, he still needed to get to Florida. His family was waiting for him and he couldn't imagine how stressed out his mom was. There really wasn't much he could've said to her that would've comforted her. It wasn't like he could just go 'Hey, mom, guess what? I'm in the middle of a zombie apocalypse right now, isn't that so cool?!'

Percy sighed as he rolled out of bed, the first thing he wanted to do was change out of his flight suit, he'd been wearing the thing all day. He shuffled over to his closet and opened it, finding a bunch of his old clothes still in there. Most of it still fit him, his mom was always adamant about him coming back home if he was down on his luck, which meant she refused to throw out any of his clothes. He'd have to thank her later.

Percy pulled out a black backpack that he used to use for hiking and started packing some spare clothes. He rolled off his flight suit and fit it into the bag, just because it was worn didn't mean it wasn't still useful. After packing enough clothes for at least three days, he turned towards what he had left.

He vividly remembered the zombies struggling to see him when he was sneaking around in his flight suit, he assumed their eyesight wasn't good enough to distinguish dark colors from their surroundings. So of course, anything brightly colored was out of the question, no way he was going to die because he decided to stroll out there wearing hot pink.

Eventually, he decided on a black hoodie, a dark blue pair of jeans, and some old converses. Boots were durable but heavy, he figured it'd be better for him to stay light. He'd move quicker and make less noise that way. Not to mention, his boots were covered in grime and a little bit of blood, he'd rather not wear them.

As Percy started to get dressed, he made sure to check his body for any bites or scratches. He wanted to make sure he wasn't bitten or anything, otherwise he was screwed. He wasn't sure if that's how these zombies worked but he figured it was worth checking for any injuries anyways.

Once Percy was dressed, he slid the backpack over his shoulder before picking up his holster with his pistol still in it and wrapped it around his hip. He made sure his stab proof vest was snug, he didn't need it rustling around or getting caught on anything. His stomach growled as he picked up his rifle, now that he thought about it, he hadn't eaten anything since lunch yesterday before he took off.

I'm somewhat safe now, I minus well eat while I can, he thought to himself.

When Percy walked into the kitchen, he opened up the refrigerator and was met by a blast of cool air. The power was still on. He doubted that would last long but he figured that'd be a problem for future him, right now he was going to enjoy a nice bowl of cereal, zombie apocalypse or not.

While Percy poured himself a bowl of cereal, he tried to think up a plan on how exactly he was going to get to Florida. Walking there would take forever. He could definitely try to steal a car and drive there but that came with its own risks, if he ran out of gas in the wrong place, he minus well have just walked. He thought about going back to LaGuardia, maybe he could try flying one of those passenger jets he saw on the ground when he flew around the airport. He shook his head, that was stupid, he doubted those things were even ready to fly in their current state.

Percy paused as he heard the sound of machine gun fire still going strong in the distance. He looked in that direction in amazement, he expected them to run out of ammunition by now, yet they were still fighting. He was tempted to turn on the TV, maybe the news would have a good view of who was still holding out. He decided against it, the TV might make too much noise.

He was just about to eat another spoonful of cereal when he heard a thump downstairs. He froze, he forgot to lock the door to the apartment complex itself. He wasn't sure if there even was a lock for it.

Swallowing, Percy stood up and made his way to the knife block on the kitchen counter. There were no signs that the zombies knew he was in the apartment, he needed something silent to kill them with. He slowly took a kitchen knife out of the block and made his way to the door, unlocking the door and peering out into the hallway.

As expected, the hallway was empty, the door must've held all night. He could've stayed in the apartment a little while longer if he wanted to but he knew the longer he stayed in New York, the lower his chances were of getting out.

He stepped out into the hallway and crept towards the door. As he got closer, he could hear the sound of something coming up the stairs, groaning. He swallowed before slowly unlocking the door as to not make any noise.

As soon as he was certain that the zombie was on the other side of the door, he threw it open and charged out, right into the infected hag waiting on the other side. She screeched only to get pushed into the railing of the stairs.

"Stupid bitch!" Percy rammed the knife through her eye.

Percy was going to be one hundred percent honest, he wasn't sure why he decided to insult a zombie before killing it but he chalked it up to adrenaline. He moved out of the way as blood spurted from the zombie's eye. Yanking the knife out, he cringed at the slick sound it made.

He looked down at the corpse after it fell, she was definitely infected alright. She had lesions all over her arms. He flipped her over to see her eyes, they were jet black, just like the airport workers. He sighed, he was glad he didn't stab some poor old woman thinking she was a zombie when in reality she was just coming home from church or something.

As nasty as it was, Percy found killing a zombie with something like a knife would probably be his best bet going forward. Using a gun would only be for emergencies, weapons like knives and bats would definitely work better in terms of keeping quiet. Yesterday, it seemed as if the infected were drawn to noise, maybe that was the only sense they still had left.

Percy wished he knew more about how these zombies worked. So far, all he'd managed to work out was that they were highly aggressive, capable of running, attracted to noise, and terrified of dogs. He needed to figure out how they infected people though, mainly so he didn't become infected himself.

The idea of infection brought another issue to Percy's attention. He realized he didn't have anything to deal with any injuries he might sustain, zombie inflicted or not. His flight suit had a small medical kit in it but it was small and limited in what it could do. He needed one of those medical kits for disaster prep.

With that in mind, he descended the stairs, his eyes sharp and rifle ready.

Ω

It took Percy a while before he finally found a pharmacy on the corner of a street. He'd been dipping into alleyways and dodging hordes for the past hour or so. It was rare to find zombies on their own, he noticed they all seemed to form groups, like wolves. The zombies usually shuffled past him with no issue, which was good because he knew they could run if they wanted to and he wasn't sure if he could outrun them.

The pharmacy in front of Percy was one of the smaller ones, but he couldn't complain since it looked like one of the only ones that hadn't been utterly ransacked. The glass windows were still intact and the door was still on the hinges. He could see through the glass door, whoever looted the place didn't destroy it in the process.

The issue was he couldn't just waltz in there, there were two zombified cops standing near the front door. They didn't seem to notice him but he knew he'd have to kill them if he wanted inside. The issue was that he couldn't kill one without alerting the other and once the other zombie saw him, he'd have about five seconds to dispatch it before it bit him.

Percy crept across the street, hiding in an alleyway as one of the zombies looked over at him. It heard his footsteps but it didn't see him, at least, that's what he assumed since it wasn't currently running at him while screeching.

He was just about to move in for a kill when he felt something touch his shoe. He looked down and found a cellphone on the ground. He smiled, he could use that. He picked it up but he didn't turn it on, he wasn't going to make a call or anything. Instead, he peeked around the corner and threw the phone past the zombies.

The two zombies squealed as they saw the phone fly past before shattering on the ground. They growled before running over towards where the phone landed. That was when Percy made his move.

Kitchen knife at the ready, he sprinted out of the alleyway, grabbing one of the zombies from behind and stabbing it through the eye. Stabbing the skull itself would take a ton of strength to do, it was easier to stab through the eyes which were soft, the knife was long enough to reach the brain.

The other zombie looked over after hearing blood splattering on the ground. It screeched when it saw Percy holding the other dead zombie. Like a feral dog, it charged at him, saliva dripping from its mouth and black eyes full of hunger. Percy smirked before throwing the dead zombie's body into the zombie.

Gotta make sure it's dead, he thought as he walked over to the zombie.

The zombie screeched and clawed at the corpse, ripping skin and flesh off the bone. Percy leaned down and raised his knife before driving it down onto the zombie. He sighed as it went limp, releasing one low groan before finally dying. He was getting better at this if he had to say so himself.

Percy looked back and forth to make sure there weren't anymore zombies coming towards him. The nearest ones were in a group headed away from him, they didn't seem to hear the commotion. Maybe they could recognize the difference between their fellow zombie's screaming and humans screaming. Either that, or he was one lucky bastard.

He turned and walked into the pharmacy, turning and shutting the door. The door would at least muffle some of the noise from his looting but he had to be careful, if he fired indoors, there was still a big chance those outside would hear him.

The inside of the store definitely looked worse than it did from outside. Some of the shelves were tipped over, the products scattered all over the floor. Bottles of lotion had been burst, the white substance inside forming puddles. Some of the lights above were shattered, the remaining lights were few in number and some of them were starting to flicker. Percy noted the blood splatter on the floor, someone definitely had a bad day.

At this point, he'd given up hope on finding survivors. With the amount of infected walking around, he highly doubted anyone in their right mind would be staying in New York unless they were down on their luck like he was. He didn't bother calling out for anyone, the last thing he wanted was to draw attention to himself.

As he walked through the shelves, he lit up when he saw the familiar red bags with white crosses. He rushed over and started looking at them, some of them were for hiking trips, others were for car accidents, and some of them were all-purpose. There weren't that many, however, and some of the remaining bags were torn open.

Percy was only able to grab two first aid kits, they weren't in the best condition but compared to the rest, they were the best he was going to get. Now it was time for him to get the hell out of—

A sharp pain flew up his back as something hit him. The force of whatever hit him was so strong it had knocked him down onto the floor. He scrambled about and flipped on his back, blocking the next hit with his rifle. A loud metallic clang rang through the shelves.

"Fuck, just die already!" Whoever was attacking him said desperately.

Percy was too busy trying to avoid getting hit to get a good look at his attacker. All he knew was that it sounded like a woman. He wasn't sure what she was hitting him with but whatever it was, it hurt.

"Wait, fuck, hold on!" He said, pushing his attacker away, "I'm not bit!"

He was just able to bring his rifle to bear as his attacker froze, assumingly seeing the rifle pointed at her and hearing his voice. He was panting as he took a good look at her, he was right, it was a woman.

The woman standing in front of him was quite literally one of the prettiest women he'd ever seen. Call Percy a dumbass for rating her attractiveness during the apocalypse but hey, he could acknowledge beauty when he saw it. The woman in front of him looked like a stereotypical California girl, her creamy skin covered in a suntan. Her blonde hair spilled around her shoulders like gold. What got Percy though were her eyes, they were gray, it was like she was looking into his soul.

Judging from her clothes, he guessed she was some sort of scientist. She was wearing reflective gray hazmat gear though she was missing her mask. She had a hammer in her hand but he didn't miss the fully decked out M4 hanging off her body or the holstered pistol on her hip. She wore an American flag and a biohazard symbol on her right sleeve.

"The fuck is your problem, lady?!" He cursed, getting to his feet, "I come here to pick up a first aid kit and you try to beat my brains out with a hammer? I almost fucking killed you!"

"I'm sorry, I thought you were a zombie!" She apologized.

"What kind of zombie goes shopping for first aid kits?" He asked in disbelief, leaning down and picking up the first aid kits he dropped. He slid his backpack off his shoulder and opened it, dropping one of the kits inside.

The woman knelt down and picked up the other kit, handing it to him, she said, "I'm so sorry, I didn't know you weren't infected."

He sighed, "I guess I should count myself lucky, you could've shot me."

The woman looked down at her rifle, "No, even if I wanted to, I wouldn't have shot you. I'm out of ammo."

He stood up and shouldered his backpack, "What kind of pharmacist carries a gun anyways?"

She shrugged, "I'm not a pharmacist. I'm a virologist."

"Great, so you know what's going on then, right?" He asked, "I mean, being a virologist or whatever."

Now that Percy was actually able to get a good look at this woman, he couldn't believe how hot she actually was. He really needed to get his mind out of the gutter but he couldn't help it.

"It's not safe here." She said, "Come on, follow me."

Percy followed her to the back of the pharmacy, mainly towards where all the vaccines and medicines were. He wished there was a vaccine for whatever the hell was going around but he doubted it, he didn't even know exactly what was infecting people.

As he followed her, he couldn't help but notice she was walking with a limp. The idea that maybe she was bitten and hadn't turned yet crossed his mind. He kept his rifle close in that case. He'd hate to have to kill her but if she turned, he wouldn't have a choice, it was between him and zombie her and by God he was choosing him.

The woman led him to a huge steel door with a porthole. She took out a keycard and slid it into the card reader, "This is the lab I've been staying in, don't touch anything."

"Alright, I won't." He said, walking in after her.

The lab wasn't huge like Percy expected, in fact, it was quite small, maybe four people could fit in there comfortably, anymore than that and someone would be complaining. He noted all the vials of fluids and medical charts and logs scattered about on a counter. There was microscope perched on one of the counters with a few images next to it. There was more scientific equipment but he honestly didn't even know what they were.

"Are you CDC?" He asked.

"Sort of." She said, "I got transferred to a special department a few months ago."

"What kind of department?"

"The kind that deals with viruses that make people eat other people."

"There's a department for that?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

She scoffed, "There's a department for everything." She motioned towards a chair, "Sit."

Percy didn't see any harm in sitting down so he did. He watched as she walked about, picking up an empty vial and a needle. She picked up a disinfectant wipe and a blue tourniquet before walking over to him.

"Woah, hey, what the hell are you doing?" He sat up.

"I need to take your blood." She said, "This won't hurt for more than a minute."

Percy sighed as she tied the tourniquet around his bicep before ripping open the packet for the disinfectant wipe.

"Why don't you just do a swab test?" He asked as she rubbed a circle on his arm with the wipe.

"A blood test is safer." She said, "Your saliva doesn't show signs of infection until you're already all crazed and rabid."

"You sound like you've seen someone turn before."

She sighed as she attached the needle and the vial, "I'll tell you after I get your blood. Now make a fist."

Percy did as she asked and took a deep breath, not even wincing when he felt the slight prick of the needle.

"Relax your arm." She murmured.

It took about a minute, maybe less, for this woman to get his blood. She pulled the needle out and took out a bandage, wrapping it around his arm.

"Great, you have my blood, now you mind telling me what's going on?" He asked, "I mean, I just landed in LaGuardia and next thing I know, I'm smack dab in the middle of a zombie apocalypse."

"Zombie wouldn't be the correct term." She said, "This virus doesn't reanimate dead people, I'd say it's much closer to rabies than anything, but way worse."

"How long have you known about this?" He asked, genuinely curious.

"Maybe five to six months now." She said, "The CDC didn't want to tell anyone about the virus out of fear it would start a panic. Plus, this virus wasn't as bad back then. The infection time took about two days, now it takes one minute."

"Where'd it come from?"

She shrugged, "We don't know. Rumors are it came from China, some say it came from a slum in India, but our best guess is Central Africa. One of my coworkers, a guy named Luke Castellan, found a bunch of dead bodies in a cave there, all of them fresh. He took a blood sample and we found this virus in the blood. We don't know who patient zero is but my best guess would be one of those bodies was probably him."

"This Luke guy, where is he?" Percy asked. In his mind, Luke might have the vaccine or cure for the virus.

She shook her head, "I don't know, I was talking with him on the radio but he went quiet yesterday. He was acting weird since he returned from Africa, I was worried he was infected but he never turned. Now I don't know, he might've turned."

"Why wasn't he here with you?"

"I got sent here to analyze someone in a hospital that they suspected had the virus, Luke was busy with vaccine research. I got attached to a national guard unit and everything but by the time we got to the hospital, the entire place was swarming with infected."

"And I'm going to guess your guards probably bit the dust?" Percy assumed.

She nodded grimly, "There were just too many. The only reason I'm still alive is because they told me to run while they held them off. I came here because this was where I was supposed to analyze that patient's blood." She pointed to the door, "That door is what kept those infected cops outside the pharmacy from coming in and killing me. I tripped and sprang my leg while I was running, I was planning on waiting until it healed."

"Well, they're dead now, so you're welcome." He said cheekily.

"Yeah, thanks, I guess." She looked away, "Now, tell me how exactly you ended up here."

Percy shrugged, he didn't have anything to lose by telling this woman the truth, it wasn't like the military was going to court martial him or anything, "I was just doing a routine flight in my F35. I tried requesting permission to land at my homebase but no one responded until some marine named Clarisse told me to come up here."

"Where were you operating out of?" She asked.

"NAS Oceana, Virginia."

She bit her lip, "That sounds about right, the virus spread to every state on the same day, I still can't figure that part out. When I was sent out here, New York and San Fransisco were the only places with confirmed infections. Maybe two hours later, I got a call from my supervisor that there were infected in every state except Alaska. They even moved the headquarters down to Florida because apparently D.C was being overrun."

"How did Florida survive all this?" He asked, "My mom's down there and she said both Florida and Georgia had walls built along the borders."

She shrugged, "The citizens there probably shot anyone they thought was infected. The only states that are doing well in this whole thing are states that had a ton of armed citizens prior to the outbreak and states with low populations. Alaska has been completely untouched but they've closed their border to everyone."

"Thank God for the second amendment, huh?" He muttered.

"I'm pretty sure the founding fathers didn't have this in mind when they wrote that." She said, "Anyways, you mentioned your mom was in Florida, I'm guessing you're headed down there too?"

"Yeah." He confirmed.

"Alright, I'll pack my things up, I'm coming with you." She said, "I'm Annabeth by the way."

"Percy." He smiled, holding his hand out.

She shook his hand, "I'm looking forward to working with you."