[closed] zombiestuck

[windyheir]

[April 13th, 2009. That was the day everything changed. Nobody expected the sudden invasion from the skies, and within a year the invading aliens had taken control of a good portion of the planet. These creatures with grey skin and orange horns were absolute terrors on the battlefield, and no human army could even compare to their destructive capability.

That was why the remains of the American government decided to make the virus. They knew no army on Earth stood a chance against such a fearsome army, so they decided to turn to chemical warfare instead. No matter how strong the alien army was, even they would fall to disease. By late 2011 they had designed a virus that only killed off trolls, while leaving humans unaffected. The world had its secret weapon.

November 11th, 2011. 11/11/11 day. It was meant to be the turning point in the war, where the American military would unleash their fearsome disease on trollkind, killing them all off within a matter of weeks. Indeed, it seemed to work at first, and trolls began dying off by the thousands. They were dying so quickly that the Condescension, the leader of all trolls, had to continuously send new waves of trolls to Earth to fill in the spots for the front line soldiers as they died. Still, the virus seemed to be working, and all of humanity bundled themselves in to try to wait for the trolls to give up and leave.

But then, as the bodies accumulated on the battlefield, something terrible happened. Nobody knew why it happened, but some of the dead trolls began to rise again. Their bodies were dead, their souls were gone, but somehow they were able to move and attack. And when they attacked, they didn't just kill humans. they devoured them. And they attacked and killed other trolls too, and those trolls who were killed by their own dead rose again as well. spreading this mutation of the sickness.

Zombie trolls proved to be much, much harder to fight than regular ones. While normal trolls stopped fighting if they were fatally wounded, zombie trolls would continue to fight until their bodies were either burned or blown to bits. At first the Condescension tried to fight the zombification, telling her best scientists to find a cure. But after years of trying, no cure could be found, so the Condescension pulled her forces out and left in 2014, a mere five years after her initial invasion.

She didn't take all of her trolls with her, though. Any troll who had ever been planet-side was left behind, and all of their space-traveling vehicles were destroyed. She would not risk any chance of the sickness going along with her when she left. As far as she was concerned, the displaced and zombified trolls were now the problems of Earth.

It is now 2019. Roughly thirty million humans and seventy million trolls remain alive on Earth. Those numbers continue to dwindle every day, as the hundred million survivors of Earth have to combat countless zombies, each more fearsome than the last. Some are fast. Some have telekinetic powers. Some can control the minds of animals, other trolls, and even humans. All of them want just one thing: the flesh of the living.

John Egbert had only been 13 when the invasion started. He had been far too young to play any kind of role in the war, and afterwards all he could do was survive. Most of his friends had fallen out of contact when the invasion had started. His one remaining relative, his loving father, had fallen to the zombies years ago. All alone in the world, John had continued to survive in what remained of Seattle, making a home in the small, walled-off area that held all of the survivors from the western coast of the United Stated. It used to be a suburb of Seattle, actually, and the mayor of the settlement had been the mayor of Seattle when civilization had fallen.

They couldn't hide behind the wall forever, though. They could grow food and sustain life inside the walls, but when anything special was needed someone had to go out into the remains of Seattle and hope to find what they were looking for.

That is why John Egbert is currently sneaking through the empty streets, his trusty hammer on his back and his two pistols in his belt. He is trying to recover a spare part for one of the generators, and he has to make it to one of the many hardware stores and back before the sun sets. Being midday, the zombies are all inside, hiding from the harsh rays of sunlight. One of the lucky breaks humanity had gotten was that trolls seemed to hate sunlight, so zombie trolls instinctively kept to the shadows. John is taking advantage of that, and he hopes to make it home before any zombies come out to bother him.

But is he truly alone?]

Comments

[windyheir]

[It looked like he was right, Karkat really had been hungry. John wasn't too surprised, after five years of a broken society all of the packaged food was starting to go bad. If Karkat didn't know how to farm, then he would have a hard time finding food. John knew he would be in that same position too, if he hadn't been taught how to hunt.]

Oh, that's the thingy that makes all your blood different colors, right?

[Luckily he's not completely ignorant of trolls, he had learned a couple things over the years.]

[very_sorry]

YEAH. THOSE IN THE LOWER CASTE ARE MORE LIKELY TO HAVE PSYCHIC POWERS.

OF COURSE THERE ARE EXCEPTIONS TO THE RULE.

[He shrugged, realizing that he had devoured all the food John had left out.]

GOT ANYMORE?

[windyheir]

[Wow, that went by quickly. John would have to remember to bring more next time, if he could sneak it out without getting caught.]

Let's see...Well, none of us really know how you guys catch that zombie virus thing. Do you have to be bitten or something?

[There were probably studies done, but John has never seen the results of those studies.]

[very_sorry]

[Just like that he looked annoyed again.]

YOU DON'T KNOW HOW WE GOT IT? YOU IDIOTS ARE THE ONES WHO GAVE IT TO US!!

[He slammed his fist against the ground, ignoring the pain it brought.]

IF YOU PEOPLE DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT YOUR WEAPONS DO YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO FUCKING USE THEM.

[windyheir]

[Whoops! It looked like that was a sore subject with Karkat.]

How am I supposed to know? I was only a kid when all that stuff happened!

[He's only 23, and this all happened within the last ten years. There was no way he could have been involved in the creation or use of any kind of weapon.]

[very_sorry]

[What the hell was a kid? A wriggler? Sounded like the context.]

AND YOU THINK YOU HUMANS ARE THE ONLY 'KIDS' THAT SUFFERED FROM THIS?

[Okay Vantas, getting a little off subject here.]

YOUR PEOPLE AND YOUR FUCKING CHEMICAL WARFARE FUCKED US ALL OVER. HUMANS, TROLLS, EVERYONE.

YOU WERE A 'KID' BACK THEN? WELL SO WAS I. AND I WATCHED OTHER TROLL 'KIDS' DIE ALL AROUND ME, ONLY TO RISE BACK UP AND TRY TO EVISCERATE ME. THIS WHOLE MESS IS YOUR FAULT!

[May wanna quiet down there champ.]

[windyheir]

Dude, quiet down! Do you want them to hear you?

[Which was about all he could say, because Karkat did have a point. It was even more fucked up for the trolls, since they had a whole 'nother set of worries besides trying to survive.

But trolls were the enemy and John wasn't supposed to sympathize with them, so he tried to push those thoughts from his mind. 'Tried' being the key word there, it was an absolutely horrifying thought that would bring entirely new kinds of nightmares to him.

John took a moment to look around them, trying to see if there were any undead. He didn't see anything, but he definitely heard some stirring coming from somewhere, which was not good at all.]

...we should probably get out of here.

[very_sorry]

YOU GET OUT OF HERE. I'M DONE TALKING TO AN INSENSITIVE, MENTALLY IMPAIRED HU--

[And that's when he heard it. Shit.]

...

[He nodded at the human and started to make a run for it. If John followed him then whatever. It's not like he was heading back to the base tonight anyway.]

[windyheir]

[The funny thing was that John thought Karkat was heading back to his base, or at least somewhere safe. John's home was far enough away that he didn't think he could outrun zombies to it, so he was hoping Karkat's hideout would be closer.

So he booked it after Karkat, not even turning to look back to see if there were any zombies. If any were close enough to see, then they could use their freaky powers on him.

Enjoy your tagalong, Karkat.]

[very_sorry]

[He does not enjoy the tagalong. He is ignoring his tagalong so hard. John was lucky he had fed Karkat or he probably wouldn't have let him follow.

Instead of going to the actual base, Karkat leads John to a tunnel of sorts, one that leads underneath the city. Was it once a subway? A sewer system? Karkat didn't care either way. The point is it was out of the light, and rarely did the undead seem to traverse it.

Maybe he was just lucky.]

[windyheir]

[The subway actually got John to stop for a moment, and he lingered at the entrance as Karkat disappeared down the stairs. He always avoided the subway system, because it was dank and dark and run-down without the proper care it needed. Basically, it looked like the perfect place for the undead to hang out.

But Karkat was going in there, and he still had his mind, so maybe it wasn't dangerous? Or maybe Karkat had walled off a section of it to make his home. It still seemed risky, and John was very unsure about it, but staying out in the open all by himself wasn't a good idea either. More than anything else, John was afraid of being caught by the undead when he was alone. Even a troll was preferable to solitude.

Finally John gave up and hurried down the stairs after Karkat, trying to catch up with him. It didn't take long for John to be completely blinded by the darkness, though, and he pulled out a small flashlight and turned it on. The bulb was dimmer than it had been when it was new, but it still worked, and it gave John some light to work with.]

Hey, where'd you go?

[He's shining the beam around, trying to see which direction Karkat went. There's only two ways he could have gone, but John wanted to make sure he took the right path.]

[very_sorry]

[Karkat literally sprang out of the tunnel he had headed down. If he had startled John then that was just fine. In fact scaring the shit out of him was sort of his intention.

He tried to shush the human and motioned him to follow. For once he wasn't shouting.]

The other path will probably kill you.

[John would soon discover the path he had gone down was walled off, but it wasn't Karkat who had done it; There was a pile up of wreckage, the whole thing tipped over on its side so it was impossible to enter through. Which was good; as long as they weren't too loud no unwanted guests would appear from the other path.]

[windyheir]

[John yelped in surprise at suddenly Karkat, but he quickly covered his mouth with his hands, muffling the sound. Keeping his hands there, he nodded as he listened to Karkat, and then he followed him down the path.

Soon enough it was a dead end, with wreckage covering the hole just as John had thought. He slowed long enough to take a look at the wreckage, though he kept the beam of his flashlight to the ground, rather than shining it all over the place and calling attention to him.]

Did you do this?

[He spoke those words quietly, as he was curious, but he was also cautious. Sound echoed down here, and it could travel far.]

[very_sorry]

No, it was like that when I found it.

[And just like that he plopped down next to it, resting his back against the wall. There wasn't much of anything there. A few blankets he had ransacked from some empty house, some debris in a crudely assembled campfire. Really, that was about it.]

[windyheir]

[Yeah John got the feeling that he really didn't want to know what had moved something so big.

And that sure is a secret hideout, Karkat. John is totally impressed by it, except not really.

Still, he moves to sit down like Karkat is, with his back against the wall, though he leaves some space between himself and Karkat. He's not sure how long they'll have to hide there, or even if it was a safe place to hide at all. More than anything he just wants to get home, but he knows that will be impossible for at least another day.

Somehow he still managed to smile, though it is a weak one.]

This sure is quite a mess, isn't it?

[very_sorry]

You think this is a mess?

[He couldn't help but roll his eyes.]

You humans can't really handle much can you?

[He knew he was safe. This was where he spent most of his time, after all. It was true the undead made their way down here from time to time, but they rarely seemed to wander towards this little neck of the system. Of course it was always a possibility, but that's why the troll kept his weapon on him at all times. Karkat also wasn't much of a sleeper. Like at all. When he had to sleep he would often find someplace more secure.

He never slept at the base. He couldn't.]

[windyheir]

I guess not, no.

[John has learned how to deal with a lot of things, but that doesn't mean he doesn't get scared. As much as Karkat knew this area, John really didn't, and that made him all the more nervous.]

You know, this place used to be a lot better, back before...everything. I only came here a couple times, but it was so vibrant and alive. There were so many people here! But I guess humans are really fragile after all, what with how quickly everything changed.

[He wasn't sure why he was rambling on. Maybe it was easier to sit still when there wasn't silence between them. It wasn't like they had much else to do for the next half-day, anyway.]

[very_sorry]

[Karkat sort of just shrugged at that. He had no idea what this place looked like back then, and at the moment he was hardly interested. After all, by the time he had arrived the place was already a warzone. He couldn't really picture anything on earth looking 'vibrant' and 'alive'.]

War does that, I guess.

[Was he really going to be stuck with this guy for an extended period of time? God dammit.]

[windyheir]

[He nodded at that, though he was sure the war didn't have as much to do with it as the aftermath did.]

What was your home like?

[He's guessing Karkat can't go back home, since the spaceships all left years ago, and nobody in their right mind would stay on Earth when it was like this. Even the astronauts had used the last few space shuttles to get off that rock, choosing to die in space rather than on Earth.]

[very_sorry]

Really shitty. [He said it rather flatly.] But a bit better than this.

Only the children lived on the home planet, and once we had matured enough we'd become a part of the Empire.

[But who gives a shit about that? Sure, their race would live on. That was great. But what hope was there for the trolls down here? It was all a matter of waiting to die.]

[windyheir]

A planet full of kids? What about their parents?

[Kids could raise themselves from a certain age. John had been seventeen when his father had died, so he had been on his own since then. But he couldn't imagine really young kids taking care of themselves.]

[very_sorry]

[Now that's a word he wasn't familiar with.]

Parents? What's that?

[windyheir]

You know, your mom and dad! The people who make you and raise you.

[Maybe the trolls had a different word for it. Karkat had to have parents, where else would he have come from?]

[very_sorry]

You have a word for that?

...They do both of those things?

[windyheir]

Well yeah, why not? It's not like babies can take care of themselves.