Oh hello, welcome to this completely self-indulgent story that has been kicking around in my head since high school and which I finally got the gumption to write a few months ago. I've loved Star Wars on and off since middle school but never had the courage to write or post any stories, so enjoy and be kind I guess! I should also note that I grew up on Legends canon and a lot of my info was taken from there, but I've read or watched a bit of Disney canon stuff. In particular, there are certain parts of this story that were heavily inspired by the 2022 Obi-Wan Kenobi show. It should not matter too much in this story, as it's a fairly straightforward zombie AU. Anyway, all that said, enjoy the opening chapter!

PLANETARY REPORT

Total population: 5,679,280

Number fled: Est. 2,040,000

Number wounded: Est. 500,000

Number of deaths: Unknown

Number of infected: Unknown

Governor Marfa slapped down the datapad. The headache that had started two weeks ago, when the first incident had been reported, was building in intensity. Worse and worse.

Agri-world-6. Most inhabitants simply called it Agrisix until the Empire deemed fit to provide them with a better name. Once a small rural colony on the edge where the Outer Rim met the Mid, but under his rule, now a productive marvel of foodstuffs, leathers, rare woods, and medicinals. All of it due to his hard work. His colleagues had laughed when he had been assigned the tiny planet with a population of less than a million, but he had seen its vast potential and vowed that he would have the last laugh in the end.

So it was to that purpose that he had sent in cratefuls of machinery to plow the fields for grain and livestock, instead of the tiny subsistence gardens the colonists had scratched a living on. He had utilized the swamps and woodlands for materials to build the many homes needed for their laborers, then sent even more workers out to begin exploiting its other resource - rare medicinal flora, barks and herbs and roots, unknown on any other world and brimming with possibilities in Imperial research labs. He had brought in huge beasts from some little-known jungle planet, merely because their skins were said to be quite valued in the Core. He had imported Wookiees to work the forests and cut down the dense hardwood.

Now, had all these little ventures of his worked? Of course not - almost all the Wookiees had perished, supposedly from overwork and "inability to adapt to the new environment", which he had always taken to be bureaucratic talk for "laziness". At least one of the jungle beasts had escaped into the woods, but he had turned a sizable profit from the venture nevertheless. He had even cleared out a small sector of dissidents, some group of rejected, would-be Jedi that had been subsisting on the planet for years. The colonists had spared them, insisting stupidly that they had no powers and were therefore harmless. That just showed how far the Jedi rot had spread.

Still, what else could one expect from this backwater planet? But what a transformation he had wrought. Credits were flowing in, materials shipping out. From a planet that had barely a quarter of its land cleared, he had now tamed almost half of it. And one city - the planet's only city - he had built as well, to his exact design: the center of industry, business, transportation, and administration for the entire planet. From a population of several hundred thousand they had grown to one of several million, all engaged in the creation, processing, packaging, and transporting of products. A peaceful world, a quiet people.

Until a few days ago.

At first, he had thought it was a riot. Rebel spies infiltrating his placid, obedient people, disrupting his placid, obedient world. No matter, reports stated it was only a couple dozen dissidents, easily rooted out. He'd sent a message to the nearby Imperial base, who had responded with a squadron of stormtroopers to suppress the unrest.

None of those men had returned.

At least, not as themselves.

And the riot had only spread.

Trade was disrupted. Goods were piling up. Factories and farms had to be shut down. Millions had fled on ships meant to ship cargo; millions more were infected, dying, or dead. As for those that remained… he did not want to think about it. Hiding, at best. Looting or rioting, at worst.

Thank the stars it had not reached his mansion – the containment fields and laser gates were keeping them out for now. But the city itself, his beautifully crafted jewel of a city, was practically lost. Datapads were piled high around his desk; he was sending all his forces out but they were dwindling rapidly, deserting or joining those besieging the planet – and on the sly, getting his ship ready for him to flee, if necessary.

So when an assistant with a beleaguered look on his face came rushing in, he snapped, "I already told you, I will not be seeing anybody at this time!"

"I know, sir!" the assistant exclaimed – which was most unusual. Proper etiquette had been demanded - no, required - here in the mansion. That meant only soft voices and the politest of tones. Let no one say that a Rim planet was lacking in its courtesies.

Governor Marfa was on the verge of giving a sharp reprimand when he saw the look on his assistant's face. The man had gone quite pale, hand with its requisite datapad quivering.

"What is it?" he demanded.

"Sir…" Sweat dripped from the assistant's face. "It's – it's – Lord Vader. He demands an audience with you."

Stars, but he was even more terrifying in person.

Lord Vader swept in, the sound of his respirator filling the room, cloak sweeping past his frightened guards and making his quavering assistant drop his datapad. Vader was flanked by an officer and a contingent of white-armored stormtroopers, all wielding blaster rifles, and at the sight of it all Governor Marfa had to remind himself that he was in charge here and there was no reason Vader ought to even be here in the first place. It was Marfa who had been placed in command by Moff Vanko, Marfa who sent the reports that went straight to said Moff and thence to the Emperor's advisors before, maybe, just possibly, reaching the Emperor himself… and what was Vader to that but a glorified lackey of His Majesty's?

Of course, then he remembered that Lord Vader outranked all Moffs and wielded more influence than a mere advisor. Had he not been at the Emperor's side since the inception of the Empire? Was he not the Supreme Commander of the entire Imperial military, whatever that title meant? Rumors shared only amongst the other regional governors had it that the Emperor had a tendency of executing his advisors every few months to keep them on their toes, yet Vader had remained for the last eight years, surviving rivals, purges, and all manner of assassination attempts.

Some poor junior assistant who apparently hadn't heard the news came rushing into his office. At the sight of Vader, he went stark white, shoved some piece of flimsi into his superior's hands, then backed trembling out of the room. Governor Marfa's guards, all apparently agreeing that this was a wonderful idea, followed suit as well.

The governor was not so easily cowed. You're the leader here, and Lord Vader merely a guest. Act like it. He straightened in a futile attempt to meet Vader's great height, face blankly professional. "Lord Vader."

"Governor Marfa." Vader's voice boomed out over the room. Marfa suppressed a flinch – that voice could rattle a man to his bones. At the doorway, his terrified assistant was quivering down to his boots. No doubt he had received some urgent news and that was the only reason why he was staying put when everyone else had fled the vicinity, but it would have to wait. "I am here to put down this rebellion of yours."

Marfa bristled. "I assure you, Lord Vader, this is no rebellion, nor is it of my doing. Furthermore, I have no need of any assistance from you. My men are well in control-"

"You have failed to contain the insurrection and so it is your doing." Lord Vader drew nearer, and Governor Marfa began to get a sense of just how close in proximity he was to the… man? droid? alien?... whatever the hell Vader was.

"My lord," he said in his most civil tone, "I don't know if you are aware of what exactly we are dealing with, but-"

"Then perhaps you ought to enlighten me."

The assistant now tried to jump in, though he looked scared out of his wits at the thought of speaking up. "G-Governor. I – I have some – some urgent news-"

"Later," snapped Marfa. He had noticed the deadly twitch of Lord Vader's fingers. Stories of what Vader did to any who displeased him filled his head, which he endeavored to push away as other stories, of Vader's rumored ability to read thoughts, came to mind. "My lord, this is no insurrection. These are not the coordinated attacks of rebels, nor are they the riots of discontented subjects." Not that his people had any reason to be discontented, nor was he the type to miss out on potential rebels, but that was beside the point. "We've had some disquieting reports from the field. It seems to be – some sort of infection that causes its victims to die only to rise again-"

A distant crash echoed down the hall.

"Governor," the assistant squeaked, head jerking towards the sound, "I meant to t-tell you – I need to tell you - the people, the - those things- " His voice was a squeak. "They've - they got through the containment fields, I don't know how, they're past the laser gates too - they've reached the door- "

And then all hell broke loose.

"How much farther is it?"

"Not much farther, Princess. Be patient."

Leia Organa stared out the window of the shuttle, feeling anything but patient. It was her first trip alone – well, Captain Antilles was there along with a unit of his security guards, but it was her first trip without her mother and father. And it was to their little vacation home, so it was her first time off Alderaan without them! Her first time off Alderaan entirely!

The ship banked low over what looked to be a massive field of some kind, flying closer as it reached a shadowy swamp, before veering for the dark, densely green clump of trees. That was where their vacation home was. It was a planet mainly used for growing stuff, her tutors had told her, but her parents had inherited a piece of land in one of the forested areas, which made up about half the planet. Her parents were too busy to go there themselves, they had told her, but when they were young it had been a spot for them to relax, to be with one another, to get away from all their work and just have some fun.

And now it was Leia's turn.

"Steady, Princess," said Captain Antilles, hand on her shoulder, as their ship dipped slightly to port. The entire viewport turned on an angle as they cruised over trees to an empty landing spot, but Leia did not tilt or stumble or lose her balance. It was her first time off Alderaan, her first time on a starship, but she could feel how and where and when the ship was going to move, like it was a part of her.

The ship steadied out and straightened, and Leia felt a low tremor as it drifted over the dirt. With a small thump, it landed.

Leia was running for the door even as Captain Antilles urged caution. The security guards laughed, barely trying to stop her as she burst out of the confinement of the starship.

"It's so… different," were her first words as she stared around the forested clearing. Alderaan had its lakes and its trees and its plains, but there were always homes and cities nearby. Everything was pruned and prodded into perfection, watched and trimmed to highlight its most beautiful aspects - and that included Leia herself.

This place though… it felt wild. Untamed. Free. Some of the trees had clearly never been cut. The fuzzy grass on the ground was growing in huge weedy patches. And the air! It smelled woody and musty and just the littlest bit dank.

It was wonderful!

She spun around, giggling, wanting to take in everything, and there right near the house was a tree - definitely never been cut - just big enough to climb up and stare at all the ships coming and going. She took one step towards it.

A twig snapped.

Leia and Captain Antilles jerked to attention. The captain's hand fell to the blaster at his hip. He jerked his head and the rest of the guards - four of them - ran down the ramp, positioning themselves around Leia and the captain in a small circle.

From the shadows of the trees emerged a figure.

"Stop right there." Captain Antilles's voice had the force of a command. "This is private property, reserved for the Queen of Alderaan and her royal consort."

The figure did not move. Leia stared at it – she was closer to it than the captain – than back at the captain. It looked humanoid, but it was too shadowy for her to make out their face, their gender, or even their species. All she could tell was that they looked tired, hunched over and breathing in shallow gasps that Leia could hear all the way from where she was.

"Back away, now," ordered the captain sharply. His security guards had also drawn their blasters.

The figure let out a low groan, drawn out and painful.

Shivers ran down Leia's spine at that sound. The figure's head swiveled towards her.

It sniffed.

Leia shot a confused glance back at Captain Antilles. His eyes caught hers and he made a hand motion: get behind me.

The thing was still staring at her, head tilting to one angle, then another. Yet she could still feel its gaze on her, and every sense in her body was telling her not to move.

"Princess, behind me," Captain Antilles said to her, a note of warning in his voice. To the men, "Set for stun. It might just be some confused trespasser."

Leia took one step back.

The figure cocked their head.

Then they crouched and shrieked.

An answering chorus of howls echoed around the forest.

Faster than anything she had ever seen, the figure ran - straight towards her. She saw stun bolts radiating out but missing, too slow to catch the creature. Captain Antilles shouted for her to run, but she had not even turned around before she felt a hand clutch at her.

The thing was on her, fingers digging into her flesh – grabbing her by the arm – she caught one fleeting glimpse of a bloodied head with a slavering mouth that opened wide -

Its teeth sank into her flesh.

This time it was Leia who screamed.

A blaster bolt hit the thing in the shoulder. Then several more. The figure spasmed, releasing Leia and whirling for Captain Antilles until a second bolt slammed into its torso. It fell backward, dragging along a still-screaming Leia. She kicked it - get away, get away - and finally succeeded in ripping her arm away. Pain shot up her arm as muscle tore. Warm wetness oozed down her arm. She scrambled to her feet, getting behind Captain Antilles -

A final bolt flashed across her line of sight. She reached the captain just in time to see the figure knocked back by the bolt. It tumbled to the dirt, twitching for a few seconds before going still. The security guards surrounded the thing in a circle, blasters still aimed.

"Princess Leia!" Captain Antilles lowered his blaster, taking her by the uninjured arm. "Are you all right?" He pulled her, panting, away from the prone thing that had attacked her. "Let me see, Your Highness."

He rolled up her sleeve and examined her arm. Leia gulped great lungfuls of air as she stared at the massive bite wound on her arm, the imprints of rows of teeth that had punctured skin and flesh and were bleeding all over the arm. She darted a glance at the horrible figure that had attacked her. She could barely see it, still encircled by the guards, but it looked… strange. The person's skin was a sickly gray, there was gashes down its body and limbs that were blackened and oozing blood and other liquids, sticky stuff that was several shades of white and yellow. Its head was tilted towards her, staring at her even in death, but the eyes were glassy, glazed over so she could not see the pupils.

The captain said a word that would usually get Leia a fierce scolding from her mother, drawing her attention back to him. "Come on, let's get you inside. Force knows what that was, but we'll get some bacta patches on that, then-"

"Sir!" one of the guards shouted.

Leia looked up to see more figures emerging out of the shadows, from behind trees, seemingly rising from the ground itself – all surrounding them. Some looked human, others were larger, smaller. Many walked, but a few crawled, others hung off the trees, a couple even flew. But all of them growling, groaning, lurching closer and closer.

"Stay back!" shouted another guard, pointing his blaster.

One of the leading figures halted, head tilting in the guard's direction.

Then it sprang.

The guard fired but missed wildly. He aimed to fire again -

Too late. The figure reached him and leaped. Within seconds the guard was down, pinned under his attacker's body as it tore at him with clawed hands. Then, before Leia's horrified gaze, she saw the thing - the monster - unhinge its jaw and bite deep into the guard's neck.

Blood spurted along the ground, into the thing's mouth, all over the guard's uniform as he tried to scream. All he managed was a wet gurgle.

Captain Antilles shoved her behind him.

"Open fire!" he roared.

Blaster bolts filled the air, downing several of the figures in front, but each time one fell another took its place - and then the things were running. Leia heard the panicked shout of a second guard as a crawling creature dragged him to the ground; saw a third get jumped on as one of the things leaped out of a tree. The fourth kept firing even as a mass of half-dozen tore into him -

It was a moment before Leia realized the screaming she was hearing was her own.

Captain Antilles raised his own blaster. "Leia, run!"

"What?" she cried out.

"Run! Get to the speeder in the garage and get out of here!"

"What about you?!"

A dozen figures burst fully into the clearing, humans and aliens alike, sporting wounds, missing limbs, dragging themselves forward because they were missing entire halves of their body – but all of them coming for them, hunger in their dead eyes.

Captain Antilles fired. "Princess, run! Go!" He kept firing. Figure after figure went down, only to be replaced by another – or to fling themselves straight back up. They had huge holes in their torsos and shoulders and legs from the blasters but still they kept coming. "RUN!"

Leia ran.

The sounds of screeching and growling and hissing, of blaster fire, echoed in her ears over and over. She ran straight back, into the house and through the rooms to the garage. Her small fingers barely reached the button to open the garage door, and even as the sunlight of the clearing began to enter the darkened garage, she was already clambering clumsily into the speeder. She could not see anything over the dashboard, she could not reach down for the gas, all she could do was press buttons frantically until –

With a whoosh the repulsors came to life, the speeder lifting off the ground - and blasted out of the garage, the top just skimming the half-opened door. Leia slipped off the seat at the burst of momentum, her shoes planting hard into the accelerator. The speeder shot forward, past the hordes of murderous beings, down the one road out of the forest – and straight for the only thing in sight, the massive city on the horizon.

Luke shook awake at the thump of the ship landing.

He sat up, ignoring the instant stirrings of guilt in his gut, and reached for his pack. He was only going to be gone a little while. The captain had said the ship would be headed straight back to Tatooine with its cargo once it was loaded, and that would only take a couple of hours. Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru probably wouldn't even notice he was gone. And if they did, he'll just say he had gone to Biggs's place and had stayed over when it got too dark. He wasn't supposed to do that, and he was definitely supposed to get someone to tell aunt and uncle so they wouldn't worry… but they'd understand at least. Nobody went out at night on Tatooine because of the Tusken Raiders. Besides, sleeping over at Biggs's house would only get him a lecture, not… whatever he would get for hopping on a ship and leaving.

And it wasn't his fault anyway! It wasn't fair that all his friends had been able to go on a trip off-planet and Luke hadn't. Uncle Owen had said he had chores, so he was the only one who missed out. It didn't matter that the planet was right in the same system, or that it was almost exactly the same as Tatooine, or that Biggs said it was really boring (which Luke suspected he was only saying to make Luke feel better). The important thing was that everyone else got to do fun, exciting stuff except for Luke. He was always the one stuck on his stupid dustball farm on a stupid dustball planet.

So yeah, he'd run away. And by running away, he meant hopping over to Biggs's home (so that wasn't a lie) and then hitching a ride from there to Anchorhead, and then hiding in a transport all the way to Mos Eisley. Yeah, Uncle Owen said never to go there, but Luke had stuffed himself in a box and he really hadn't seen anything at all.

Plus, it was for a good cause, and it'd only be for a little bit!

Speaking of running… he had to get out of the ship's cargo hold before anyone here noticed him.

He waited until the door of the hold opened. The box he'd hidden in had been packed and loaded onto the ship without anyone checking, which was really lucky for Luke. Even luckier, nobody had bothered to screw it close or pack stuff on top of it, so Luke had gotten out quick as lightning and hidden himself behind a pile of crates.

It seemed to take an awfully long time for anything to happen, long enough for Luke to wonder if they had forgotten about their cargo and were going to leave him trapped there. He was getting kind of hungry - he hadn't eaten at all since running off…

But with a leap of his heart, he heard a clang from outside and then the creak of the old hinges as the door was slowly lowered to form a ramp. He pressed himself back behind the massive boxes and waited for the first few haulers to come onboard. They were mostly droids, their rollers grinding over the metal plating, but there were two men there to watch over them, stooped and weary, muttering to themselves. He peeked out cautiously and saw one getting into a big loader that he was using to lift and move the heaviest and largest boxes. It was dark enough inside, even with the low lighting, that Luke didn't feel too afraid of being caught. Snatches of their conversation filtered down to him, muffled by the clank of machinery.

"-sort of holdup, huh?" grumbled one of them. He grunted as he lifted a box.

There was a heavy thud as the one in the cargo loader put something down. "Eh, what can you do?"

"Not much. Never seen the port so empty, though…"

A droid came within inches of Luke, and he ducked back. The droid's whirring cut off the conversation for a few seconds. By the time it left, he only heard the last part of what was being said.

"-weren't answering their comms, though-"

"So they're on a caf break, you know these backwater planets." The voices faded.

They had left the ship for a bit - this was his chance! Luke darted from his hiding place to crouch behind another box, then scurried to a third, keeping low and getting closer and closer to the door. He poked his head over the top. The hauler was coming back up the ramp but the other man was still outside. He waited for his chance.

At the precise moment when the hauler had gone deep into the ship's hold and the second man had his back turned, Luke slipped down the ramp. His boots padded along the metal surface. As soon as the height was low enough, he leaped off, hitting the floor with an oof! He saw even bigger loads of boxes piled so high they were bigger than the haulers, and he kept scrambling until he was far from the ship and out of sight behind them. Only then did he let out his breath.

He'd done it!

Now to explore the planet!

The spaceport alone was bigger than anything he'd seen, bigger than his home, bigger than the whole town of Anchorhead. He'd expected to see more ships landing and leaving – right then the skies were quite clear – but just being on a ship, and seeing all those places others would be, was more than he could have hoped for. He practically skipped his way past them, imagining what kinds of ships they might have. The small ones might be for speeders - no, starfighters! Definitely starfighters. Maybe even bombers! The medium sized ones could hold anything: boring ships like transports and freighters, but maybe they'd have shuttles and gunships too! And the big ones… could those be for warships? It boggled his mind.

He was instinctively heading for the only building in the entire spaceport. It was kind of empty - he'd expected lots more workers around - but that suited him just fine, because it meant he could walk around and observe everything without getting spotted. The spaceport was outdoors, a big complex of permacrete and metal. He tilted his head to sniff the air, then stopped, eyes widening.

Clouds! The sky was cloudy! He'd never seen clouds on Tatooine at all!

Did that mean it was going to rain? Or… it had rained? Maybe not, in his holobooks he knew that other planets had different kinds of weather and sometimes there were clouds with no rain. But he stared at those gray puffs nevertheless. It was way more different than looking at some images of them.

As for the air… he inhaled some of it and wrinkled his brow. It smelled strange and felt even weirder, like it was making his skin all sticky. That never happened except when he was sweating, and he was not sweating now. It wasn't even hot, just… mildly warm. To Luke, used to scorching heat, that was the same as feeling cold.

He kept jogging, hugging his pack to him (he'd taken it with him, just in case), intent not on leaving the spaceport - he did have to go back soon - but to at least reach the building and maybe see something of the city. Luke had never been to a city. The only place he'd ever been to outside of Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru's moisture farm was Anchorhead. Well, he supposed he'd been to Mos Eisley now, but that didn't count because he hadn't actually seen anything. Uncle Owen had never let him go there. When Luke had asked why, he'd just grunted, said something about it being a foul and evil place full of scum and villainy, and told him to go back to cleaning up the droids.

His uncle would probably kill him if he knew what Luke had done.

Luke expected that he'd have to do some more sneaking around as he got nearer to the building, but it was a lot easier than he'd thought it would be. There just weren't a lot of people around. That did seem a bit weird - even at Anchorhead there were more people than he'd seen in this huge spaceport. But he shrugged it off; maybe things were different here.

The closer he got to the building, the more he realized that it was actually a warehouse, a huge one, big enough to fit Uncle Owen's entire farm. It also had almost no people at all. Again, that felt strange for it to be so empty. But the captain on the ship had said something over the intercom about this being a mainly agricultural planet, which meant there was a lot of farming (Luke groaned - he could never get away from farming), probably with big machines and drones. Not like on Tatooine, where everything was so run down from the sand that they could only use small droids. So really, there probably weren't as many people as he'd seen in those holos of, say, Alderaan or Corellia.

There was a big, wide pavement that went all around the warehouse. Luke followed it, figuring it would lead him out. He didn't want to go to the building anyway; he wanted to see the city! Tugging his pack closer to keep it from bouncing, he started to jog, aware he'd have to go back soon if he wanted to catch the ship back.

That was when he cleared the building and saw the city laid out before him.

Luke stopped, eyes wide. It was so much. And so big! There was a fence surrounding the spaceport, but he could see beyond it to all the buildings everywhere, made of plastic and metal and duracrete and other stuff he couldn't even name. Anchorhead was nothing compared to this. Only the sand dunes were as big as some of these buildings! Or maybe the cliffs of Beggar's Canyon! Even from this far away he could see how huge each building was, miles upon miles straight up. He was sure once he was closer they would look even larger - the warehouse he was in was only a couple hundred feet up and already the biggest thing he'd ever seen, so one of those buildings might hold all of Mos Eisley. Maybe everyone who ever lived on Tatooine!

And speeders, so many speeders parked everywhere! He ached to hop in one and take it for a ride. Luke had only ever seen the one at home and maybe half a dozen at a time in Anchorhead. But here he could see thousands along the streets, waiting to be shipped out or parked along the sidewalk and buildings or crashed up against one another –

He frowned. Crashed? Why had they crashed?

Luke put that out of mind as he walked further down the road, towards the fence. The landing port, he realized as he drew nearer, was kind of like a little island in the city - he could see a gigantic canyon that dived deep in the ground, lower than he could see. There was one bridge to cross it, far on the other side of the spaceport. He was mostly walking across a huge parking lot and loading area for all the stuff people unloaded.

Speaking of people… there really weren't as many as he'd thought, considering how close he was to the city. Actually there were quite a few on the bridge, past the fence. They were all walking a bit funny. Like shambling. But still, there were a lot of them, and a lot of different species of them – he saw a family of Twi'leks, another group of Rodians, some Trandoshans in uniforms, more aliens than he'd ever seen before. Though it was strange: they all walked the same way, hunched over, a slow lurching walk, like their bodies were almost too heavy for them to hold up.

One of them made a funny sound, like a snuffling noise. It turned towards Luke, but not quickly and smoothly. Its feet scraped along the ground, its body swung about like a pendulum. Luke blinked at it, unnerved, then moved back a step.

It was bleeding.

And its eyes… they looked all wrong.

The figure gave one deep sniff.

Then it opened its mouth and screeched.

As one, the others on the street turned, smelling the air. Almost all of them were bleeding from some part of their body, almost all of their eyes had that frightening dead look.

They all howled.

And ran towards Luke.

For one horrifying second, he stood frozen, not believing exactly what was happening – thinking, stupidly, that they were coming after something or someone else.

But all at once it hit Luke – they were coming for him.

And then it was he who screamed. Who turned. Who ran.

Not back to port, but towards the building, thinking wildly that if he got inside, he could slam the door, hide, get out of sight. He ran and ran and he heard footsteps and howling and groaning that seemed to be getting closer and closer – and still he continued to run.

His foot landed in a puddle, and he skidded several feet forward–

– then slammed into a door that burst open at his momentum.

Falling to the floor, Luke had just enough foresight to get up and kick the door shut, right in the face of the things chasing him. A frustrated screech punctuated the air and the door shook from the force of the bodies, and Luke yelped, sure it would give from how they pounded at it. He ran back from it, crashing into boxes and parts before tripping over something he could not see in the darkened room to collapse on the floor.

But slowly, so slowly, the banging grew quieter… then stopped.

Lying there, panting from exertion, heart beating wildly not just from running but from sheer terror, he finally curled up on the floor.

And if he cried a little, that was nobody's business but his own.

The city heaved and roiled on itself as people fled and shrieked and died. Its ships left its ports. Its industries sputtered and died. Its inhabitants left or died or turned.

The city emptied out. The factories ground to a halt. Machines came to a stop where they stood. Homes flickered out and were abandoned. Speeders crowded around spaceports, left by their owners to flee off-planet - or because they no longer had need for them at all. Many others were just stopped in the middle of a street, left in a parking lot or a garage, or smashed, burning, against buildings, against street lights and signs, against other speeders in a massive pile-up.

Food rotted, water ran out, the power flickered and died. Buildings went aflame from neglect or fell apart under the weather or from the disasters that had struck them.

And the only people left, soon, were those that had turned. Shambling through the abandoned streets, they lived only to hunt out their prey.

The few living souls that remained stayed hidden. And waited.

Much of this story was based off the video games Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, though you don't need to have played any of the games to understand the story, to the point where I can probably point out which levels inspired certain scenes. As an example, a lot of these beginning city scenes are heavily inspired by the "No Mercy" and "Dead Air" levels in the first game.

I was also aware when writing this fic that an official Legends canon novel had already been published with a similar premise (Death Troopers, if you're curious, which is about prisoners aboard a ship who are suddenly infected with a disease that kills and then reanimates them). I hadn't read it at the time when I wrote this, but I did after finishing the fic and it's pretty different from this fic. But hey, clearly I wasn't the only one with this idea!