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Last time

Percy could hear the teeth of Marleen snapping at his face. She was inches away until the sound of a loud hissing rang out. With a small pop and the head of Marleen exploded all over Percy, blood painted the kitchen red. Grover stood over Marleen's lower body with a flare gun in his hand and fear all over his face.

"Took you long enough."

Present:

Jason slammed his brakes when he made it into Piper's apartment complex. His heart rate went to a point where many would consider it dangerous. Looking around he saw a few of the neighbors that were still outside giving him strange looks, as he raced from his car and up the steps to Piper's door. Pounding his hand on the door, Jason's heart rate was spiking until the door opened with a click of the lock being turned. The confused face of Piper stared back at Jason as he stood with his hand in the air. Blushing in embarrassment at the position he was in he made his way past her and got into the living room.

Piper closed the door and spun around to face her frantic boyfriend. "Jason what the hell is going on? You hung up on me and are acting like a crazy animal right now." Jason made eye contact with her as he reached out and placed his hands on her shoulder.

"You didn't get bitten by anything today did you?" Jason started to check her wrist, and neck. Piper just shook her head as he let out a sigh of relief.

She watched as he started to run around the apartment grabbing several small suitcases and cardboard boxes with some of the stuff they haven't unpacked yet. Watching him race around the small apartment and out to car Piper just stood out of his way. "Ahh I found it!" Jason called from the back of one of the rooms, he came out a moment later with a wooden baseball bat.

Piper watched as he took several practice swings. "Jason, please explain what's going on right now." Jason watched her start to panic from the way he must have looked.

He raised his hand to his head as he thought of a way to bring this up. "Piper the world is changing and it's about to go to shit. There are groups of people who are biting other people, no one knows why or what it is but it changes the person into a feral monster. We need to leave here and meet with Percy and Grover, then get the fuck out of here." He gave her a small kiss on the head and started to pull her to the car. Piper let herself be dragged away and locked the door on the way in case they needed to come back.

Piper bit at her lip as she got into the car with Jason. With a sudden roar of the engine the two started to make their way to Percy and Grover. Jason slammed his foot on the gas and raced his way towards his best friends.

Within half an hour the two arrived at the house that had marks of a break-in. The window to the kitchen had been smashed in and no lights were on.

Jason stepped out and held onto the bat carefully as he cautiously walked to the door. Piper followed behind him as they got closer to the door, the two could hear a pair of voices inside. Jason opened the front door and the two walked inside. As they walked in they came witness to a scene of Percy dragging a headless body through the living room, with Grover behind him holding a big plastic baggie.

Grover hovered over Percy, "So I went with the extra strength zip lock since we don't know if these guys are attracted to smell or sound just yet." The two look over and see Piper and Jason standing at the doorway, they give a small wave to them as they try to step in front of the body, with Grover throwing the baggie behind them. Jason spun around to catch a fainting Piper.

"Took you long enough," Percy muttered as he lay on the kitchen floor covered in blood. Grover threw the flare gun onto the ground and reached out to pull Percy up from the ground. Percy was able to get to his feet while Grover handed Percy a towel, which he took to wipe his face and clean himself a bit.

Suddenly the lights flickered back on and the television in the living room turned on. Grover started to freak out about the emergency tone playing on the screen when a loud knock came from Ethan in Jason's old bedroom. Grover cried out in fear as Percy decided to start cleaning up. "Come on Grover, we need to get this as cleaned up as we can." With a small nod, Grover started to get a zip lock bag.

Percy gave a small shrug as he started to prep the body for transport. With a heavy tug, Percy started to drag the body along the floor of the kitchen, as Grovfer started to pick the bits of brain and dropped them in the plastic bag. "I think I'm gonna throw up Percy." Grover squeaked out.

Percy just nodded in agreement as he moved the body.

Percy looked up to make eye contact with Grover before they both heard the sound of knocking at the door. They both looked at each other as Percy grabbed the shovel and crept himself to the door. Deciding to take a peek through the peephole, Percy was able to see Annabeth standing next to a tall man with medium-length blonde hair, both of them stood impatiently. Percy swore to himself as he backed away from the door, "Shit Grover, it's Annabeth and Luke. What do we do?" Percy whispered to Grover. Both of them panicked for a few moments before they heard knocking again. Percy bit his lip and mentally told himself to just open the door.

With a swing of the door, Percy greeted the couple who didn't look that happy at the moment. "Um hey there what's up?" Percy awkwardly stood there at the door.

Annabeth cleared her throat for a quick moment, "Yeah we were wondering if your power went out too?" Percy looked past her and saw that the house had no lights on. There was also no loud music or crazy lights coming from it. Percy gave her a quick nod before Luke pushed past them both and looked inside Percy's house.

Percy's body went stone cold as soon as Luke tried to look inside, but thankfully it seems Grover was able to move the body far enough you couldn't see it from the door. The lack of lights helped hide the blood as well. Seeming to accept the idea that the power was out inside the house, Luke pulled back and leaned into Annabeth's ear, Percy wasn't able to hear what he whispered but Annabeth didn't look comfortable with what he said. She looked at Percy and for a moment he was able to step in when they heard the sound of a loud crash. They both looked at Luke's house and saw a larger guy jumping through a window and loud cheers erupting from inside. Luke laughed and started to make his way back to the house, Annabeth turned back to Percy, "I'm sorry about that. I wish he would be more respectful. I'll see you around Percy." Annabeth walked off with a wave.

"Right, see you around," Percy responded quietly. Quickly going back inside and with a slam, he closed the door. Taking a deep breath as he realizes how close to being found out about the body in the house. Grover walked around the corner and gave Percy a bottle of water, Percy gave a nod of appreciation before drinking from the bottle.

"Hey Percy, do you think Jason is fine?" Grover asked as the two stood in the kitchen. Percy thought to himself for a moment. He was worried about his cousin and one of his best friends. Percy slapped Grover on the back and walked to check on the bottle.

"Of course I do Grover, it's Jason and he's coming back from Piper's which means he's just late." Percy joked. They started to get back to cleaning as soon as Jason and Piper opened the front door.

Percy was dragging the headless body through the living room, with Grover walking slowly behind him with the zip-lock bag. Making his way over to Percy, Grover hovered over Percy, "So I went with the extra strength zip lock since we don't know if these guys are attracted to smell or sound just yet." The two look over and see Piper and Jason standing at the doorway, they give a small wave to them as they try to step in front of the body, with Grover throwing the baggie behind them. With a wet sounding thud the bag hit the ground, Jason had to spin around quickly to catch a fainting Piper who couldn't handle the sight of a baggie filled with guts.

Jason brought Piper over to the couch and laid her down carefully. "Well, you guys have been busy as Jason looked around the room. He noticed the faint scratch marks and blood splatters. Percy just rolled his eyes and he gave Jason a tight hug as he was grateful that his cousin was safe and healthy. Jason gave him a tight hug back, and he then hugged Grover as well.

Piper soon woke up and saw the group of friends standing there with Grover running to the kitchen for a moment, he returned with two bottles of water. "Here you two need water, I figure you haven't drank anything yet." Jason and Piper both gave a quick thank you, as they both drank greedily.

Jason took a break from drinking his water and wiped his forehead as if he was rubbing the stress away. "So what are we dealing with-" Jason started before Percy cut him off.

"Jason, did I or did I not ask if you had the baseball bat?" Percy stared at him.

Jason sighed and looked over to Grover as if to ask if they were going to do this. "Percy, I don't think this is the best time to deal with this. Grover nodded and poked Percy in the side as he gave out a yelp. Jason knew this was just Percy dealing with the situation at hand.

Grover sucked in some air, "Okay we can go over what we know. These people have grayish dull skin, and pale white eyes that have very small pupils. They move in stiff, or at times dragging movements. They can gain some speed but it seems to not be sprinting. After taking a look at the body we have here we can say that the body is dead. The bodies will have the urge to bite others and eat them, which means we are dealing with zombies." The other two boys nodded, with Piper understanding a little bit.

Piper understood what Grover was saying, sure she watched several horror movies. Especially with Jason, she wasn't someone who was scared easily. She knew he would game with his friends and they liked to play zombie games, she never hated that it was nerdy and she found it cute for him. But she was never able to understand when he got really into the nitty gritty of the movies. She could feel a headache forming as the trio looked like they were going to get on their zombie talk.

Jason looked around and the three nodded in agreement, "We need to get out of here, let's start loading up the car and start driving." The two other boys nodded along, and all three of them started to work on prepping the car as Piper stood there dumbfounded. She thought they were gonna waste time on their zombie talk. Jason smiled at her as he gathered as much water as he could find. They refilled the water bottles they had before and threw those in the car as well. Percy and Grover gathered as much as they could that could be used as weapons.

The group was almost done when the sounds of loud banging and yelling could be heard. Jason turned to look at Percy and Grover and saw they both had a sheepish look on their face. "Oh yeah, Ethan." Grover muttered.

Jason gave them a questioning look for a moment until the realization of what they meant settled in. "Are you telling me there's a fucking zombie in my bedroom?" Jason shouted at the two.

Percy reached over and clasped his hand on Jason's shoulder, "Jason my friend, let us think back on what's really important here. We are all safe right now and that's the important part. We're alive so be happy." Jason rolled his eyes and slapped Percy on the back with a tight smile.

"Of course Percy, that's the important part."

Percy smiled as his back stung, he looked at Piper for help and watched as she just laughed and went to finish helping Grover. Percy was happy they could laugh and he thought of the future that lay ahead of them.

Grover and Piper came back into the house as the two cousins finished getting some objects that could serve as weapons. Percy decided to keep the snow shovel, since it could be useful in the future. Jason kept the baseball bat, and was able to grab a hammer and screwdriver from the toolbox they kept under the sink. He handed Piper the hammer and gave Grover the screwdriver, the flare gun being a one time thing for them. Suddenly Grover's eyes lit up as he ran to the bedroom Percy and him were trapped in before.

He came running back out with something in his arms. "I can't believe I almost forgot about this, we got it years ago." Grover revealed the object to be a long metal sword that the three of them had bought as a gift for the whole group back when they had no money.

Percy stared at Grover for a few moments before a thought crossed his mind. "Grover was that sword in the room we were trapped in?"

"Yeah it was under the bed." Grover nodded.

"So then why the fuck did we use an umbrella?" Percy shouted.

Grover blinked at him several times before going red in embarrassment. The group started to load into the car with Jason in the driver's seat. With a turn of the key the engine started. The group watched as the start of the chaos came to the other people. Percy looked out the window to see the big party Luke was throwing had people racing to get out, he thought for a moment he could see Annabeth but at the moment he had to focus on his friends. Jason drove as fast as he could through the street, narrowly avoiding people and zombies as he could.

Piper kept tuning the radio, trying to find some station that was reporting on the situation. Coming to an intersection Jason looked left before taking a right turn, "Grover see if you can still call Juniper. We can pick her up in five minutes." Jason spoke over the radio station. Quickly Piper handed her phone to Grover who dialed Juniper's number. Thankfully Piper and Juniper were friends and had the number already saved.

Within a few short rings the soft voice of his girlfriend could be heard over the phone. "H-Hello Piper is that you? Have you heard from Grover, he's not answering his phone?"

Grover took a deep breath before answering, "Hey Junie it's me, listen to me carefully. We are coming to you now and we are only five minutes away. I want you to start packing clothes right now and when we arrive we will only have a few minutes to get everything ready to go." Grover finished.

"Baby what's happening, Mrs. Drendag was screaming next door for help and I-" she started to question.

Grover's eyes went wide with panic, "You didn't go over there did you? Did anyone or anything bite you?" He frantically questioned.

Juniper started to pace on her end and the sounds of ruffling around a closet could be heard. "No, I locked the door, and the last person I saw was you this morning. Call me when you are outside and ready to go, okay I'm going to go pack." With a click the call ended. Grover took a few breaths to let himself calm down before leaning up to hand the phone back to Piper. She just shook her head and took him to hold on to the phone for later.

With a nod Grover relaxed back into his seat as they turned onto Juniper's street. Grover called her again to give her a notice of them arriving in front of her house. The whole car could all hear the relief in Juniper's voice over the call, Jason pulled the car over to the house and unlocked all the doors.

Both Percy and Grover got out of the car to help Juniper, the two raced to the front door. With several knocks on the door, Grover started to become increasingly impatient until the sound of locks being turned reached their ears.

Percy watched as the door creaked open and on the inside stood Grover's girlfriend Juniper. She had soft brown hair that ran down her back, paired with almond-brown eyes as well. Percy once told Grover that she was the human version of a Juniper tree. She would tell everyone she was five foot five but she really was an inch or two shorter. The couple reunited and Grover checked her over for any bite marks. With a nod to Percy, the third-wheeler grabbed the suitcase Juniper had and brought it to the car.

Grover and Juniper got into the car on one side while Percy ran around the other side to get in. Soon afterwards the whole gang was on their way out of the area. Piper started to play with the radio again before finding a working station.

"Hey everyone, be quiet, they're talking." All but Jason leaned in close. Each one of them pushed each other trying to get a good listen.

A strong stern voice came in over the radio. "Hello America, I understand you all have questions. I feel as if I can answer them all here for you right now. America please trust me, your President, to lead you through the new environment that we find ourselves in. Now you are asking how we will handle the growing issue of this "Zombie" problem. I can say that we will be building safe areas for civilians to seek out. We will have these safe areas running within the next day or two. Stay indoors and do not attempt to interact with people who you do not know. Good luck America."

Everyone in the car sat in silence as they heard the news about the safe areas. Jason kept driving until they reached another intersection, this one took them to the city or further into the north. "I need a plan here, where are we going?" Jason asked as he left the car in park.

Percy thought to himself before having an idea, "Jason, start driving to the city but then go to the industrial Community. We could set up shop somewhere there for now." Jason nodded and made a left to drive to the city. With Jason driving a few of the group caught some sleep before Jason had to pull over and let Percy drive the car. Percy drove until they started to enter the Industrial Community, "Everyone wake up! Be ready in case something happens." Percy spoke out.

Each of the group woke up and stretched as best as they could in the car. Jason was scanning the road when he saw something, "Hey I think I see a safe area, yeah it is one!" He exclaimed.

The safe area he was referring to was bright yellow and had a line going out and into the city block. Armed soldiers stood outside and paced back and forth. Each one of them talked to civilians and made sure people stayed in line. Some of the soldiers with the use of force. This caused Percy to have an uneasy feeling about the safe area and this was the main issue he saw when they announced them. The major issue that Percy saw was that everyone wanted to get in, which meant that the people flooded the front of the safe area. It's just a buffet for these zombies and no one realized.

Piper looked out her window and tried to see if there was any shorter line but with a sigh she couldn't find one. "Percy, where are we going to go now? The shortest line still goes around the corner of the street." She looked around

Percy made a turn to go down a different street. "We are going to keep driving for a bit, the safe areas are going to be completely packed and it's more dangerous that way. They kept driving down different streets getting further away from the so-called safe area until Percy saw a big building with a barbed wire fence. It was a big two-story warehouse with a large open yard in the front of the building. Jason and Grover saw the building and they nodded in agreement with Percy's idea.

Pulling the car off to the side of the warehouse Percy and Jason got out of the car, "Grover you stay here, if you see anything you get the girls out of here." Jason ordered. Percy grabbed the sword from the car and gave it a couple of test swings. The two started to move closer to the fence and after a few moments of searching for the latch they eventually found it, however it was all locked up with a chain and padlock.

Jason gave Percy a look and with a sigh the two looked for a bigger rock, Jason found a large one while Percy found a thinner one. Percy pocketed the rock, saying it might be useful for later, Jason swung the rock with all of his might into the padlock and they both watched as it chipped the paint on the lock. "It looks a lot easier in games," Jason muttered.

Percy chuckled and took a turn with the rock and both of them saw there was some damage on the padlock. Jason took another swing and the lock broke the lock this time. They pulled the chain and they opened the fence to allow them to enter. The duo made their way into the warehouse and made sure to start checking any and all rooms they found to make sure they didn't have any zombies in the warehouse. Deciding that it was clear for them to live in, Jason walked outside to get the car inside the warehouse fence. Grover and the girls climbed out of the car and they each grabbed the few boxes and supplies they brought along.

Both of the girls walked in with the boys behind them. "Okay no, I am not staying here Jason. I would probably be killed by a rusty nail or something." Piper gave him a glare as she spun around.

"Hey Piper, who here has fought or killed a zombie, raise your hand?" Percy snapped back. Grover slowly raised his hand until Juniper pushed it down with a shake of her head.

"What's your point, Jackson?" Piper gave him her death glare now.

"My point is sticking here with us, is the only way you will live. I get it this sucks but we have to figure out a way to live and survive. We can fix this place up and it has plenty of space. Get your mind in the now and not what we had before. We can clean tomorrow and get you and Jason some private space okay?" Percy told her with an edge to his voice.

Percy looked around about finding something they could use to make a clean spot for them all to sleep the night. It took him a couple of minutes but he found a really old broom that he used to sweep up some areas for the group to sleep in. Jason and Piper set out to organize everything they brought. With the help of Juniper, Grover was able to get some of the rechargeable flashlights up so they had some lights ready for the nighttime. Percy grabbed some blankets they packed and a few pillows and got those ready for sleep.

Percy looked around and gave himself a mental pat on the back for picking a decent location. "Guys I think we should rotate who sleeps and who keeps watch. This way we all will get some sleep and we have someone keeping us safe."

The rest of the group agreed since there were five of them set up so Percy slept first while the couples stayed up. Percy was exhausted and after some moments he laid his head down on the pillow he was given. Sleep came moments after and soon Percy was dreaming.

In the dream, Percy was walking throughout the city. Each of the buildings was empty as he walked past each of them. Department stores, convenience stores, and even the street vendors were empty. He made his way through a city block and only stopped when he heard the sound of crying. Breaking into a sprint he raced towards the crying and came to a sudden halt when he found the crying. Percy came to a house that looked like his house, with similar paint and structure but Percy could tell it wasn't his house. He walked up to the front door and with an easy turn of the knob was able to walk into the house. Percy walked into the living room and spotted a young woman with blonde hair that fell into curls and tanned skin, she stood over the body of a man with paler skin who looked to be dead. Suddenly the body twitched and within a few moments the body lunged itself up and wrapped its arms around the young woman. With a scream, Percy woke up and sat up throwing the blanket aside.

The others looked at him weirdly as Percy sat there in a cold sweat. His heart was beating frantically and his head started to pound. "Hey man are you okay? Do you want some water?" Grover asked carefully.

Percy looked at his best friend, "I-I'm fine, just everything getting to me now you know. I didn't expect it to get to me so much. How much time was left in my sleep anyway?"

Grover looked at his phone, "A few minutes left."

Percy nodded and took a few moments to get his breathing back to normal. He allowed Grover and Juniper to start to take their rest. Percy took a walk around the warehouse and made sure to check the windows and doors and make sure they were locked and secured. Finishing his walk around, Percy joined Jason and Piper and took a seat next to them as they sat near Grover and Juniper. Percy and Piper didn't say a word to each other instead, they would glare at each other. The three of them sat there in silence until Jason had enough.

"Okay, you two need to get along, Percy I know you enjoy Piper's jokes and find it funny she pushes me to be better. Piper, Percy is an idiot who cares about keeping us safe. So can you two get along and not fight each other?" Jason gave them both an earful.

The two looked at him and then at each other, Percy looked down and quickly muttered to her, "Sorry Piper. I'm just stressed." Piper shook her head, hugged him, and whispered her apologies in his ear. Soon the three of them sat around and did some more checks every thirty minutes.

After a few more checks, it was time to wake the others and rotate who was sleeping and who was staying up. Grover and Juniper woke up easily and soon the other two fell asleep. The three who were awake waited a bit before Juniper started to open some of the food they brought. She made sure to only eat a fruit bar and gave the boys some as well. Grover happily munched on the bar while Percy grumbled about it tasting like fruit chalk. Juniper and Grover laughed at his antics and after doing rounds around the warehouse they woke Jason and Piper.

After everyone woke up and ate a little something they decided to figure out what they were going to do. As they were all cleaning the warehouse a little more, Juniper shouted in surprise, as she brought her phone to the others. "Guys look! There is a message about the infection again."

The group looked at the screen and saw a tall, thin man with dark hair and dark bags under his eyes. He wore a dark suit and his face held the look of boredom and the longing to leave the area he was in. "Good morning everyone. Sadly the President can't be here at the moment but he is in good health and safe. We want to give you a message, that we, the government, are working on ways to keep you safe. We are deploying the use of a task force, calling it the Zombie War Force as of this moment. The ZWF will be deployed into each city and will be there to help you get to the safe areas. If you see these men and women please do not be scared we are here to help you. Thank you for paying attention to this message, stay safe America."

The screen went to a blue screen with the biohazard symbol on it. "Well shit."

ANs

Well it took me a while but I have a new chapter for y'all. Any comments and feedback feel free to put here or down in the discord link is below btw. I post all my story updates there as well as stream my writing and on twitch. Discord gets the updates of stories and anything else first.

Discord Link: /PQrCUrhu8p