So I've wanted to write this type of fic for a while now, and I've finally taken a crack at it. Just for clarification, this isn't a crossover with TWD, TLOU, or any other existing media, just PJO characters in my own little version of an apocalypse scenario. No powers or gods either, everyone is mortal here.
If this gets a good bit of attention, I'll try to get on a weekly update schedule. Even so, I write almost every day and will update regularly, so don't expect long periods of silence.
Anyway, hope you enjoy!
I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Heroes of Olympus, Trials of Apollo, or any of its characters. That belongs to Rick Riordan.
"Prologue"
-x-
Their boots sank with each labored step. Brunner felt as if they'd been walking for hours, and he wondered when the light of their laboratory would finally appear.
The conditions weren't exactly making it any easier to spot such a thing. The blizzard came a day sooner than expected, forcing a quick retreat to the warmth of the building Brunner, and his three colleagues had called home for the past six months.
It started as a routine ice core study. Not that he would know the ins and outs of that, but according to Carl Anton, the man who called Brunner onto this project, it would be smooth sailing. On paper, Anton needed him there for his biological expertise, in the event they discovered a strange, or unidentified organism. But really, Anton invited him just so they could catch up, and scratch going to Antarctica off of Brunner's bucket list.
Never, did they expect to find what they did.
"You see it yet?!" Brunner shouted over the roaring wind. His colleague, a man named Keller, hadn't heard him through all of the protective gear.
Brunner shouted again, "Do you see it yet?! The lab?!"
This time, Keller caught his words, and shook his head. "No! But it shouldn't be much further!"
Brunner hoped not. His legs were quickly turning into jelly from the grueling steps he had to endure. Not to mention the weather wasn't helping. The snowfall and wind had to be the hardest of all the days they'd been here.
Taking a quick glance towards Keller's right hand, he saw the thing looking back at him from the glass container. A pencil shaped, long, slimy creature with tiny legs protruding at the front and back. It had the likeness of a fluke worm, or a slug. Perhaps both mixed together. Brunner couldn't make anything of it.
Three days ago, when they retrieved the latest ice core sample, the creatures came up with it. Two of them, buried deep within the ice atop what appeared to be a large rock. At first, Brunner thought it was an asteroid, but he didn't want to believe it. An asteroid, carrying unidentified organisms? From where? Space? There were too many questions.
They took them back to the lab for further investigation, where they quickly realized this was no species of worm the world had ever seen. For one, they had two rows of small, but very sharp teeth, and slits for nostrils. They seemed to thrive on the cold, and despise the heat. When brought towards the lamp that lay on the desk next to the lab door, it began hissing, and writhing in Brunner's hand.
The scary thing, was that Brunner had to use a considerable amount of effort to keep the creature under control.
Not knowing what to do, the four men agreed to keep the worms in their containers, near low temperature, until they could contact the proper authorities.
But here they go, finding more of them. It's as if they want to be freed. They want to be brought back.
Brunner eased his hand towards Keller's, "I can take it for a minute if you want!"
Keller looked at the container, then back at Brunner, "Thanks, but I've got it! I think I see the light now!"
Brunner turned, and sure enough, there it was. Through the curtain of ice and snow, shone a faint, yellow light, guiding them back to the only shelter for hundreds of miles.
Knowing that relief would arrive soon enough, both men pushed their lower body to the limit, driving through the snow as if their lives depended on it. It felt like another hour had passed before Brunner reached the door handle. When he did, he wrapped his fingers tightly around it and practically threw the metal off its hinges.
He let Keller go in first, then followed, having to use all his weight to push the door shut against the brutal storm. Once it latched, silence ensued, leaving the blizzard to ambience.
Brunner took in a deep breath and swallowed, satisfying his parched throat enough to regain some energy. But before he could take a second breath, Keller was speaking, his voice strained.
"Oh…my God. What the hell happened?"
Brunner sighed, "Another cooler leak?"
Keller only responded with short stutters, beginnings of sentences that never came. This wasn't unlike him. He was an anxious person. Often blubbering about the simplest things.
But not often speechless.
Brunner turned his head, then his entire body. His eyes widened at the sight before him. Their laboratory had been rendered a mess. Papers that had once been in neat stacks, lay disheveled on the floor, with glass shards in trails next to them.
"Good God. What the…" He trailed off, noticing red emergency lights blinking next to the open doorway, signaling that the cooler screens had been broken. Adjacent to the bright red, sat a darker red, staining the walls. Brunner thought it was a trick of the eyes, an optical illusion playing games with him. But a few more blinks proved him wrong. Blood.
Splattered blood all over the wall.
He lifted his hand halfway to his chest in the direction of the wall, "Keller, do you see that? The blood?"
Brunner watched Keller's head twitch, "Y-Yeah. Do you think Carl and Lex are okay?"
He didn't want to answer that question. If blood sat on the walls, they obviously weren't. But rattling Keller's nerves would only make things worse. "I don't know. Let's have a look around."
"Do you think it has to do with those…creatures?"
For some reason, Brunner felt a chill wash over him. He knew, deep down, that Keller hit the nail on the head. The small voice within told him that sooner or later it would happen. Tampering with unidentified organisms was bound to bring trouble. Curiosity got the better of him. Of them all.
But they were no bigger than his own hand. What harm could they really cause?
Brunner saw that Keller was waiting for an answer. With uncertainty, he gave one. "Perhaps. Check the containers. I'll…see about Carl and Lex."
Keller nodded, shuffling to the other end of the lab, where the reserve coolers sat. He was careful to not get any glass on his boots, and Brunner wasn't. He was far too focused to care. His boots crunched when he made his way to the bloody wall, reaching for it to drag his finger through the thick, horrible warmth that very well came from the bodies of his two close friends.
He didn't even know why he did it. Maybe it didn't seem real. Maybe he needed evidence.
There it was, all over his glove, dripping on the floor.
"Um, Brunner!" Keller warned, "The containers are empty!"
Brunner's gaze tore away from his finger. Keller stood to his right, holding up both containers like prizes, both just as he said, empty.
It was insane. Just hours ago, the creatures hadn't moved even an inch. But now, all of a sudden, they broke free? Carl and Lex hadn't mentioned removing them for further study that day, and the container lids didn't appear opened on the outside, they seemed…forced open.
"There's no way they escaped, right?" Keller said, nervously.
He could have denied it, but instead, he answered with another question. "Where are they? Carl and Lex, I mean. I haven't heard a footstep since we got back."
"I…have no idea. The bedrooms, maybe?"
As if on cue, two figures emerged from the dimly lit hallway leading to the personal quarters. Their shadows shuffled short, slow steps, taking several seconds to enter the main room.
Giving them a once over, Brunner noticed that their stances were uneven. A right shoulder higher than the left, a head tilted to the side slightly, one knee bent, while the other wasn't. It was like a joke. A silly little trick that made everyone chuckle, then go on with their business.
The red lights blinked twice more. Enough to shine on the figures' faces, and for Brunner to identify them as his colleagues, Carl and Lex. Of course, he knew that the instant he heard footsteps, it had to be them. Who else would've wandered into their laboratory this far from civilization?
Keller let out an audible groan of relief. "There you are! Where were you two?"
It seemed silly for that to be the first question. There were a hundred others that sounded far more appropriate. They were on the tip of Brunner's tongue, but never spoken. Something stopped him.
It was the way Carl and Lex were looking at him. Something wasn't right. Their eyes were severely bloodshot, their mouths hanging open, letting out hoarse moans, like zombies. Another blink of the red light portrayed pale skin, and tattered, blood covered clothes. It was still unclear where they were wounded.
"Guys, I asked you a question," Keller said, a bit annoyed now. "Where were you? And what's that blood doing on the wall?! What happened?!"
Carl and Lex gave no answer other than more moans, which grew louder with each step they took to Brunner. At about arm's length, their entire demeanor changed. As if their bodies had been shot with adrenaline, they snarled and pounced at Brunner, hands aimed for his throat.
Brunner's instinct acted for him, just in time to jump out of their grasp and onto the floor. He watched in terror as the two men scrambled on top of each other to regain footing, their eyes wide and glazed, completely emotionless.
"Brunner!" Keller cried, "What the hell's gotten into you two?!"
"Keller, stay back!" Brunner ordered, "Something's wrong!" He'd barely finished the statement when they snarled again, spit flying from their wide open mouths, closing in on his neck.
Brunner threw all precautions out the window. Friends or not, his life was potentially on the line. He would defend himself, if necessary. Shoving a boot into Carl's face, he kicked at him hard enough to throw him off course, and bump into Lex, knocking the two backwards.
By the time they fell, Keller had made his way over, rounding the corner and demanding answers from the two. Brunner tried to warm him again, but it was too late. Carl reached for Keller's ankle, and pulled him with surprising strength, tripping him.
Brunner couldn't make sense of it, whatsoever. This wasn't a prank, a reaction to sleep deprivation, or even a manic episode. This was something else. Something…barbaric and mindless.
Still gripping his ankle, Carl ripped the fabric of Keller's pants, and bit the exposed skin as hard as he could, his teeth visibly sinking through the flesh.
Keller's scream was bloodcurdling, his eyes shut tight with agony. Brunner couldn't move. He watched in disbelief at the insanity being displayed. Carl Anton, one of the smartest men he'd ever known, had just bitten someone's leg as if he were starving. This couldn't be real.
Keller brought him out of the trance, "HELP!" He cried. "BRUNNER, HELP!"
Lex blocked his path, now upright and sauntering towards him. Brunner, with no mercy, tightened his fist and slammed it across Lex's cheek, stumbling him into the desk by the entry door. He practically slid to reach Carl's neck, where he grabbed and pulled with all he had, barely managing to pry the now zombie-like man from his friend's leg.
Keller screamed again, and immediately clutched the bite wound, now pouring with blood. Flesh had been taken with that pull, enough to fill the palm of Brunner's hand.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
"No! What the hell's going on! What's wrong with them?!"
Brunner's mind raced over several possibilities, but his voice only considered one. "The worms, Keller."
Keller reared his head back, "You don't think…"
"M-Maybe they released a spray toxin out of defense, causing…a hallucinogenic reaction." He was reaching here, but it was the best he could come up with. How else could you explain it?
"Watch out!"
He turned around just in time to put his arm across Lex's neck, stopping a bite to the face that would've come a second later.
Brunner struggled against him with all his strength, pressed against the counter of a large research table. Lex's arms sluggishly grabbed at him, his neck moving back and forth like a chicken, biting and snapping, desperate to latch onto Brunner.
He needed to do something, fast.
Swiveling his head around, Brunner noticed a small ice pick laying at the corner of the table, just within reach. It may have been rash thinking on another day, but today, pushed to these extremes, Brunner took it and slammed the brunt end against Lex's temple.
His crazed colleague fell to the ground with a thump, groaning and still biting at the air. Brunner knew he had to knock him out, or he wouldn't stop. So, with equal force, he knocked him on the head a second time.
But Lex didn't fall unconscious. In fact, he began to push himself off the ground and back onto his feet. Brunner's eyes widened in horror. No human should be able to do that after two hard hits to the head with an object like that.
Maybe he's not human anymore. Brunner shivered at the passing thought. If he wasn't, then what was he? How could someone change so drastically in just a few hours? When he and Keller left, both men were acting completely normal.
Now, Lex was grabbing onto his arm and leaning down to bite it.
His arm!
Brunner pushed him off and acted on pure impulse. Fight or flight kicked in, and his body chose to fight for him. Turning the ice pick to the sharp side, he cleaved the man's skull, again and again, until he fell lifeless on the floor, a puddle of blood growing next to him.
Brunner shook. What had he done? He'd just killed his friend. A man, who not long ago, he'd shared a beer with.
It had to be done. Brunner told himself. He wanted to kill me.
"Get…off…me!" Keller said behind him, in between the grunts of Carl, who had positioned himself on top of the wounded man, trying to claw at his protective gear to free the skin of his shoulder.
Brunner, in two great strides, closed in on Carl. His ice pick was in his neck before he, or Keller could even notice.
The force of the blow was enough to topple Carl off of Keller, but not enough to kill him. Brunner found it odd. A weak spot like the neck should've been fatal. But then again, he'd just watched Lex get up from two hard blows to the head. He figured all logic had been thrown out of the window at this point.
He placed his boot on Carl's shoulder and withdrew the ice pick, wasting no time in bringing it down on him again. This time, in the head.
Blood exploded from around the ice pick, and Carl went limp, his noises and grunts ceasing. Everything was silent again.
Brunner fell onto his rear, dropping the ice pick mid fall. Suddenly, he felt incredibly nauseous.
"Y-You…killed them," Keller whispered. "I mean…you killed both of them. Carl and Lex, they're…"
He couldn't finish the rest. Brunner remembered he was badly wounded, losing a lot of blood through that horrible bite mark as they spoke. "Let me get you some gauze. We need to apply pressure as soon as possible."
Brunner stood up, but after only one step, something caught his eye. It was the back of Carl's neck. It seemed to be…swelling. A noticeable bump where the spinal cord sat. He'd seen bruises and allergic reactions before, but this was neither. Something burrowed itself within Carl's neck.
He knelt down and got a closer look. The shape reminded him of…
No.
Brunner's breath hitched. He turned around and stared at the container they just brought in, and saw it. Looking at him. Watching him. The worm that they just found looked identical to the shape of Carl's neck bump.
He turned back, staring at it. It didn't wiggle, or even flinch, it just sat there, as lifeless as Carl.
"You killed them," Keller repeated, a little clearer. "They were-"
"Let's get you some gauze and disinfectant," Brunner interrupted, finally moving to a different area. In the hallway, he unlatched the lock to the first aid kid. Nothing in there was sustainable enough to treat a wound like Keller's. That bite would need stitches.
Nevertheless, he opened the small white box, pulling out gauze and alcohol. He nearly dropped them, his hands were shaking so much. To notice it, meant thinking about what just happened. How he just murdered two people in cold blood, two people that tried to kill him with their teeth, like rabid animals.
It had to be the worms. But it wasn't like Brunner thought. They didn't release some hallucinogenic gas that invoked a frenzy reaction, they physically forced Carl and Lex to do what they did, by burrowing themselves in their necks. Like…puppets.
Brunner shook his head. This was far too much to think about, especially now when Keller was bleeding out. He had to stop the wound from getting worse, and call Home Base to report what happened. Hopefully, it wouldn't take too long for extraction.
He didn't even bother closing the box. Brunner took the items and rounded the hallway corner, finding Keller still on the ground, sitting up a bit.
"I've got what I could find," Brunner announced, "It's not much, but maybe it'll do until-"
He stopped once he heard the noise coming from his friend's mouth. It sounded identical to the groaning and grunting heard from Carl and Lex…as they tried to eat him. Keller was twitching, in a very inhuman manner, like he was being poked with an electric prod.
"Keller…" Brunner approached cautiously, ready to drop the gauze and alcohol if needed. "Keller, talk to me."
Keller didn't talk, but his head snapped around to lock eyes with Brunner. Just as he feared. They were bloodshot, and glazed over. He gave Brunner that same hungry, mindless look as the others.
Keller sprang into action, crawling on all fours, growling as he closed in on Brunner with surprising speed. Brunner threw the first aid items to the side, but realized he'd also discarded the ice pick from earlier. He had nothing to defend himself with but his bare hands.
He grabbed Keller's shoulders to keep him from biting, and held him there. The usually weak Keller pushed him with powerful momentum, making Brunner take a couple of steps back. He decided to use that momentum against him.
Brunner ran backwards, tilting his shoulder so he could throw Keller past him, face first on the ground. Brunner took the chance and ran to get his ice pick, but he heard Keller close behind, already rebounding.
It all happened so quickly. The ice pick was in his hand one moment, and Keller's hands wrapped around his ankle the next.
He looked just in time to see Keller take a bite out of his skin, through the protective gear and all.
The pain was burning. Like being stabbed over and over by a dull knife. Brunner screamed at the top of his lungs, gripping the ice pick until his knuckles grew white. It gave Keller enough time to open his mouth and go in for another, deeper bite, taking more flesh.
Brunner let out a primal sound from his gut, bringing the ice pick down on Keller's head with fury. Once, twice, thrice...and then stillness.
Now, he was alone. Sitting in puddles of blood, his leg nearly eaten off, his three colleagues dead...all by his own hand.
He had no time to even begin thinking of how bad this would look. No matter how he explained it, he wasn't sure anyone would buy a story of parasites able to control people to the point that they couldn't even feel pain. No example existed to back it up, especially with humans.
Brunner winced. Another throb shot up his leg, all the way to his thigh. He remembered Keller, and what happened just moments ago. He changed only when he got bit. And that process took mere minutes.
So that meant...
He would become like that too.
Brunner was desperate. He wouldn't die here, not this far away, not when he had so much left to do. To live for. He felt he'd already experienced more in his forties than most people do in a lifetime. But faced with impending death, his mind began to scramble for solutions.
He was a scientist. He could think of something.
If the bite infects and spreads, then the expansion can be stopped...if there's no place the virus can go.
Brunner bit down hard on his bottom lip and steeled his nerves. He carefully raised the ice pick and let it hover just below his kneecap.
Then, he struck.
-x-
