CCC #112 - Voting Thread

A done dead apocalypses.

He ran and ran, but they where everywhere. His hot sweat covering his face. He tripped and fell, but couldn't stop. Wouldn't stop. Everyone he knew had died, but he survived. They all said he had a fighting spirit, he wished now that it was never tested. The moaning monsters kept coming, from left and right. No where was rid of the retched beasts. Except for bite town. The name was kind of stupid, but people didn't have time to be creative in times like these.

A building crumbled to the ground and he cursed under his breath. A giant roaring monster came out, stepping and kicking it's much smaller brothers. He ran as fast as he could, there was no time to think about how soar his legs where, how tired he was, he couldn't even pay attention to his breath. None of that would help him survive here. He jumped into a a truck that had chipped and faded silver paint. Giving it this ugly grey color, but it worked perfectly, and he wasn't running out of gas anytime soon. So he stomped on the

peddle and drove away, much faster then those zombies could move. He reached his destination in what he would consider a short time, and walked into a fortified house. He doesn't know who owned it. But it was a big house, so he must have had money. But every since the zombies came, he's been using this as his own. He threw his knife and gun on the table, keeping the sword with him. He flicked a switch and the lights turned on, but soon turned off after some quick flashes. He sighed and walked over to a room under the house. He unplugged a large car battery from an electrical socket and put in a new one.

He threw the old one down a cliff(which this house was conveniently located near) and got back to doing his business. It's been about 30 years since the apocalypse started, and people managed to restore internet, some how. New smaller towns around Bite town also started forming. So he turned on his computer and opened up a chat group, which took a painful 2 minutes to load and said, I'm tired of living here by myself. I'm coming back. He almost left his seat when a message popped up saying. It's been a while Mark. We'll be waiting for you.

Among the Undead

Old Man Jacobs had been searching for food, ever since the vampire apocalypse started. To begin with, he never thought of wanting to kill someone for food. He stood out there in the open, and ready to fire at someone who gets in his way. Being an ex-marine and all, have taught him everything. So, he wasn't afraid to kill a number of vampires along the way. In fact, he was too old enough to shoot their foreheads with a wooden bullet. At 65 years old, he was on the verge of dying from cancer, which have brought his life, upside down. But the vampires terrified him. He could hear their screams from the outside world, whenever he tried to sleep.

He could also hear his son screaming...

Yes, Old Man Jacobs had a son alright. But he was long gone. He even tried to help the old man out. But it wasn't enough. At the time, the food ran out of shortage, and both father and son were too desperate that they had to go to various stores, and find as much food as they could. And those damn things kept coming after them. It even got his son! Eventually, Old Man Jacobs was already tired of killing. He had endured long pain and suffering throughout his life, especially when he found out that his wife had left for another man. But his son was still there. He was only 20 years old, when he came back from college and heard the bad news.

Now, people were long gone since the vampire crisis started. Either they were dead, or had been turned into those damned things. And it looked like Jacobs and his son were entirely left alone in the world. They sometimes laughed and cried... Those were the good times. Jacobs could still see the smile on his son's face.

But the fact remained clear that his son was still dead. There was a banging on the door after he came back from the abandoned supermarket. THUD! THUD! THUD! He closed his eyes, and tried to think of something else.

Jacobs thought, How did this happen? Does he even know how this vampire crisis started? Does he want to know at all? Not likely. But he figured that it was something to think about. Later on, he would have to stay alive, hoping that someone was still out there, waiting to get him. So far, there had been no one else.

THUD! THUD! THUD! Jacobs cried out, "Will you stop that?!" The banging stopped. Jacobs sighed and shook his head. His nightmares were already started. But the point was that being an ex-marine have brought him painful memories. He had to kill those damn terrorists all day long. And this wasn't any different of what he was doing now. The only difference was...

These people were monsters, looking out for blood. As if there was no life in them. And the thought of his son...

THUD! THUD! THUD! Jacobs looked at the locked room, and shouted again. "JUST SHUT THE F**K UP!" The banging stopped again. He began to sweat, knowing that there wasn't any time left. He even laughed at the thought of it. Time didn't mean anything to him at all. The time that he had found out about his cancer, eating his body away like a rotten corpse.

Like those things out there. Jacobs sighed and came out of the house. He shot several of those damned things, over and over again. There were still more of them, where they came from.

$h!t! Jacobs noticed that he ran out of ammo. He went back inside the house, and quickly locked the door. He went upstairs, and then brought the ladder down from the attic. Usually, he kept his medals, and weapons in a safe box if his son found out about it. His wife had warned about those things.

Going out in the open seas, Jacobs felt like he was back in the war. He could still hear those firing sounds, and whatnot. He could also hear the sounds of the crying victims. And when the memories stopped, he found himself back in the attic.

Jesus Christ! Jacobs shook his head, and stared at the box. He opened it.

The door banged again. THUD! THUD! THUD! Jacobs wished the banging could stop. Even when he tried to sleep last night, he wished that this nightmare would end. But it won't. Not like this...

He reloaded his shot gun, and went back downstairs. A vampire tried to get inside the house by smashing through the kitchen window. Jacobs hit the arm, and the creature cried out painfully. He hit it again. The vampire left.

Damn these things... If there was one thing he had learned from his war experience was that he never gave up. He had been injured several times during the mission, but he managed to kill his enemies. But these things...

They just keep coming... Jacobs went outside and fired. Most of the vampires went down.

I'm getting too old for this $h!t. That banging again... THUD! THUD! THUD! The old man fired again, and then stopped. He closed the door. Locking it tightly, he hoped that the vampires couldn't come through, despite the wild theories of invitation. He stared at the clock. It was getting late.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

After hearing that sound again, he rushed towards the room and unlocked the door.

The vampire snarled at him. Using the shotgun, Jacobs hit it on the head. Then he stared at it angrily. "You shouldn't have left me. This is all your fault!"

He aimed at her forehead and fired. Blood splattered on his face. He tried to look away from it, but couldn't.

THUD! THUD! THUD! There was another bang on the door and this time...

Here we go... Jacobs sighed and left his bedroom.

THE END

Protectorate of Time Adventure

The sky rippled and out of the shimmering orange tear in reality shot an armoured figure who skid across the concrete. The orange tear sealed up aa they stood up looking around. “Homeworld, this is P.O.T Emissary Sagan Fermi. I have lost Kang and been shot through a Van Winkle rift, advise.”

Fermi looked around as she checked her suits instruments. She was on a set of massive marble steps that looked like a mausoleum or temple. Her suit crackled a broken message upon her wrist screen: Wash!^+0n D( c[Rc@ 2$28 K!RKM@N £ a P!a^ète d%s 7inges

“Homeworld, this is P.O.T Emissary Fermi, do you copy?”

On the street she noticed several creatures shambling on the street. Large…and hairy. Fermi raised her arm to scan them. A harmless thin purple line shot out to analyze them which seemed to attract them towards her. As her chronosuit complied the data, a strange whooping groan echoed out from them and they shambled towards her. Fermi was baffled by their simian features combined with their decaying nature.

Ping!H^m^ g0ri!!@ $aPieNs de(e@$ed...anom@1Y funct!0niNg

Fermi slapped her screen to attempt to make sense of the garbled message when two massive dead gorillas lumbered at her, teeth barred. She levelled her suits chrono-cannon at them and fired a burst of lime chronal energy at them, freezing them in place. Being a visitor to their reality didn’t call for lethal measures. As she looked at the two undead gorillas, she noticed a lot more heading her way, a dead planet of apes knuckle walking and bounding towards her.

“Homeworld! I need an out!” Fermi cried as she fired three more bursts at the closest ones. The sky rippled again, the Van Winkle rift opening back up behind a large group of apes. “Of course it couldn’t open NEXT to me!”

Fermi ran towards the rift firing blasts at the approaching deceased simians. Each froze in time and place form the blast but for every one that was suspended in time, more joined in the pursuit of this Protectorate of Time agent. Fermi’s screen pinged again: V@nW!n%(E de$T unkn0W^??

“Oh very helpful!” Fermi snipped as she dove into the tear of reality. Streams of lights, spiraling phosphenes, fractal shapes and unimaginable gravity swirls rocked Fermi as she stepped out into an upside down stone courtyard; very grey and full of cold concrete buildings. When gravity righted itself it was she who was inverted and fell on her head. Fermi slowly stood to see dozens of red flags with black crosses, similar to a guns crosshairs flicker in the breeze. People dressed in blue and grey walk past emotionless but soon stop to look at the strangely garbed woman who stepped from nowhere and fell on her face.

Ping! жKW2002 L!Br!@ яEal+Y

Fermi slapped the screen again. “Oh, come on! Homeworld this Fermi! I need an immediate extraction from…an unknown reality!”

People look at Fermi who casually waves at them. “Hi, don’t mind me. Be gone in a second.”

Fermi looked around at the bland brutal architecture. Screen with a man’s face on them look down from countless screen positioned around this sprawling concrete city. Walking towards her Fermi spots two men in black heading his way.

“I am Grammaton Cleric Willingham, this is Grammaton Cleric Reigel. You will accompany us to the Hall of Enforcement.”

Fermi slowly raised her chrono-cannon. “This looks like a lovely reality you guys have, but I’m going home.”

With blinding speed, the clerics dodged the blasts using their innate knowledge of ballistics and trajectory to then flank the Emissary from the Protectorate of Time. Fermi spun around to watch each of them as they circled like wolves.

“You are wielding unauthorized weaponry, you are clearly not taking your doses of Prozium, you will submit to judgement or suffer the consequences.” Reigel stated as he drew a sleek black Beretta 92FS.

“As a law enforcement officer on a level you possibly cannot imagine, I get what you’re trying to do,” Fermi stated. “But I’m just passing through.”

“Take her!” Willingham declares as he unloads bullets, joined the firefight by his fellow cleric. Fermi taps her suit covering her in a Neo field which suspends all the bullets around her.

“Just stop!” Fermi yells. “I can send these back at you but look at all these people around, you Columbine massacre rejects! If this was a normal forcefield you’d kill them all.”

The two clerics are bewildered by the physics and logic defying field around her. Another rip in the sky opens as the Van Winkle rift opens again.

“I’m going to walk through that hole okay. I suggest you don’t follow me because there isn’t a way back.”

The clerics, uncertain about the goings on, pause as Fermi runs for the tear and dives through. Another dose of streaming lights, spiraling phosphenes, fractal shapes and unimaginable gravity pounds her and Fermi skids into the dirt.

Ping! MMBTD r@El+y encoun+eReD! 19&5 B@R+ert0wn M#l G!Bs^n

The chant of “BLASTER! BLASTER! BLASTER!” echoes around her as she notices she is inside a large metal dome with people clinging to it. A large man in a metal helmet is attached to some bungee cords leaps up and grabs a chainsaw off the ceiling and bounds towards another man on a separate bungee cord trying to work out how to move.

“Hey, fair no!” squeals an ugly mishappen dwarf from the side. “Only one on one, Aunty!”

Fermi looks around at this dystopian fighting pit and raises her arm cannon. “Homeworld! Can you hear me?”

-We now have a lock on your location, Emissary Fermi. -

The metal headed behemoth charges at her swinging the chainsaw much to the crowd’s delight. The go silent as she shoots him, freezing him in place.

“Okay, enough!” she yells. “We are going to stop killing each other for five seconds and await my extraction team or I will freeze every single person…”

Lightning and weird effects began happening in the centre of the dome when a burst of light erupts. Kneeling inside the centre of the dome is a naked man, muscly beyond belief who slowly stands up.

“Emissary Fermi, come with me if you want to live!” It growls in an Austrian accent. Fermi fires and freezes the naked man.

“This is just getting silly now!” Fermi yelps. “Homeworld?!”

-Extraction team should’ve arrived. We have the T-800 unit at your location-

“Is that a naked bodybuilder Homeworld?”

-Correct-

Fermi gulps and reverses the polarity on the chrono-cannon. “Real sorry about that.”

“Let’s go!” The T-800 states as he takes Fermi’s hand and there is a massive burst of light.

Fermi and the T-800 appear in the Jump-Off Chamber of the Protectorate of Time. The T-800 morphed into a purple and green clad figure, hands behind his back.

“I am surprised you survived being shot through three Van Winkle rifts,” Kang said to her as he looked around. “But I must truly thank you for giving me access to the Protectorate of Time, a thorn in my side for the equivalent of two centuries.”

“What?” Fermi looked at him. “You…”

“Used you, of course. I couldn’t access here by force, so I thought I’d try something convoluted and dangerous. It has paid off. It has been the ninth time I’ve tried this; this is the first time it has worked.” Kang smiled. “This is akin to the TVA and the Time Lords but far more annoying.”

“On your knees Kang!” Fermi pointed her chrono-cannon at him.

“Really? You still try to capture me. I was hoping this time, in this timeline you’d just accept your fate.”

Fermi grit her teeth when a familiar flash opened up behind Kang, the Van Winkle rift. Fermi charged forward and shot HERSELF with the chrono-cannon as she tackled Kang tumbling them both back through the rift.

--

Kang thumbed his chin as he watched over the footage of this repeated encounter with the Protectorate of Time. “You are something special, Sagan Fermi. I will attempt again tomorrow.”

__

Notes

Original character: P.O.T Emissary Sagan Fermi (though the Protectorate of Time isn't original it's from a shared universe of Chronos Cops)

Dystopian universes visited: A Planet of the Apes + Walking Dead hybrid, the Equilibrium universe and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome universe.

Other characters: Kang the Conqueror (Marvel) and T-800 (James Cameron/Dark Horse)

The Last Beet Farm

By mrmonster

“Come on, they’re gaining on us.” Jason said to his wife.

“I’m moving as fast as I can.” Amanda said.

They stumbled out of the woods they were running through, and ended up in some kind of farm. And the first thing they found there was a man holding a shotgun to their head.

“Well hold on there.” The man, an exhausting looking man with glasses and a “Schrute Farms” t-shirt said.

“Dwight, two zombies at ten o’clock!” Jim shouted.

Dwight turned to his left, and unloaded his shotgun at the two zombies chasing the couple.

“Alright, now what business do you have here?” Dwight said.

“Dwight, maybe we should put the shotgun down.” Jim said. “Hi, I’m Jim, what are your names?”

“Jason.”

“Amanda, but I go by Mandy.”

“Nice to meet the both of you.” Jim said.

“Jim, what if they’re with Strangler’s militia?” Dwight asked.

“Who?” Amanda asked.

“See, they don’t know who that is.” Jim said. “You guys look exhausted, come on, let’s get you inside. Hungry?”

“Starving.” Jason said.

“Good, lunch should be just about ready.”

They came in, to find that the farm’s residents were all there, getting ready to have stew for lunch.

“Who are you guys?” Jason asked.

“We’re the former staff of Dunder Mifflin Scranton.” Jim explained. “Once the zombie outbreak started, Dwight allowed us and our families to gain safe passage here. Well, everyone except our HR guy, Toby.”

“We left him behind for a reason!” Someone else shouted. “He was evil, pure evil. More evil than the Scranton Strangler and Adolf Hitler put…”

“Yes, thank you Michael.” Jim said.

“Wow, this ‘Toby’ must’ve been a horrible guy.” Amanda said.

“Not really.” Jim said.

“Anyway, we’ve tried to stay on the farm as much as possible. Whenever we’ve gone into town, we’ve had to deal with the Scranton Strangler’s Militia. So we try to stay here as...”

And then, they heard the sound of a man falling over.

“Stanley!” A woman shouted from the kitchen. “Are you okay?”

“Yes Pam, I’m fine.” Stanley said. “I just need another heart pill.”

“You’re all out.” Holly said.

“Well damn.” He said. “Someone needs to get me some more then.”

“Stanley, that would require us to go into town.” Jim said. “And all

three times we’ve done that, we’ve barely escaped the Strangler.”

“Fine, then I guess I’m just gonna die.” Stanley said.

“I think we can help.” Jason said. “Oh the way here, we passed a small group of travelers out on the highway; they claimed to be ex-pharmacists, and that they would be willing to trade drugs for other necessities.”

“You said they were on the highway.”

“Yes.”

“Alright, I think we can do this.” Jim said.

“Alpha Strike Team, assemble.” Dwight said.

“Dwight, for the last time, we’re not calling ourselves that.” Jim said.

“Why not, it sounds awesome?”

Jim, Dwight, Michael, Andy, and Meredith all assembled, and all loaded their shotguns and revolvers. All except Dwight, who grabbed his trusty crossbow.

“Like Daryl from The Walking Dead, I will put an arrow in any zombies that just so happen to hobble towards us.” He said.

“Yeah, sure thing buddy.” Jim said. “Guys, you’ve been filled in on the plan; we find these traders, these ‘drug dealers’ if you will, we see if they have any of the heart medicine Stanley needs, we see if they’ll accept beets as payment.”

“And if they don’t?” Andy asked.

“Then we’re out of luck.” Jim said. “Now come on, we don’t have all day.”

It took the gang over two hours to walk to find them; a caravan of hollowed out cars being pushed by horses.

“You sure it’s them?” Jim asked. The last thing Jim wanted to do in this new apocalyptic world was get the attention of the wrong group.

“Yeah, I’m sure.” Amdanda said.

“Okay.” Jim said. “Excuse me, hi, can we have your attention!” Jim shouted. The second last thing Jim wanted to do in this new apocalyptic world was take anyone by surprise.

The caravan stopped, and the gang approached. “We heard you guys have prescriptions.” Michael said.

“You heard correctly.” One of them said. “Anything in particular you need?”

“Yes siree bob.” Andy said as he handed them a copy of Stanley’s prescription.

“Yeah, we’ve got some of those.” The dealer said. “But it’ll cost you. What have you got to trade?”

“How do these look?” Dwight said as he opened his knapsack. “Fresh beets, grown with my own two hands right on my own farm. All yours if you fork us over some of those pills.”

He thought for a moment and said “I’ll give you sixteen tablets, that should last a little over a month if you stretch them out.”

“Deal.” Jim said as they exchanged the beets for a pill bottle.

“Pleasure doing business with you.” The dealer said as the caravan continued on their way.

“Alright, alright.” Michael said. “Now let’s get back to the farm, these woods are starting to creep me out.”

Unfortunately, about an hour into their trek home, they were stopped when they heard a shotgun fire over their heads.

Of course, the entire group drew their weapons, only to be told “Freeze, we have you surrounded. Oh, and that was just a warning shot; the next one won’t be.”

“Oh no, the militia.” Meredith said. “They must’ve found us.”

“You’re right, we have.” A militiaman said. “And you’re coming with us. Our next stop is the Scranton Strangler.”

The gang, along with their new compatriots, were tied up and escorted back to the one place they never expected to see again; Scranton Business Park.

“What the…” Dwight said as they were taken upstairs.

They were taken upstairs, to Suite 2000; the same suite that Dunder Mifflin used to occupy.

“No way.” Jim said.

“Good evening.” An all too familiar voice said. “Guards, leave us, but stay within earshot.”

“Toby?” Jim asked.

“TOBY!” Michael screamed.

“Yes, but I don’t go by that name anymore.” He said. “Call me what you’ve been calling me for yours, without even knowing it. Call me The Scranton Strangler.”

“Toby, why?” Jim asked.

“Because everything I ever loved was taken from me. My wife left me; my daughter resented me; and the final straw, Pam chose you over me. After a while, so much rejection made me realize that the world was just a cold, horrible place, and that the only way I could feel any better was if I was just as cold and horrible to the world as it was to me.” He explained.

“Toby, I’m sorry.” Jim said. “I should’ve been better to you, we all should have.”

“Oh, so now you’re sorry. How convenient.” Toby said. “Anyway, turns out once the outbreak started, I no longer had to keep the Scranton Strangler contained. I was free to unleash it, and in this world, that ended up with me getting respect. Just look at the militia I now lead. Unfortunately, there is one person whose respect I still crave. Where is Pam?”

“Why do you want to know?” Jim asked.

“Because she will be mine, whether she wants to or not.” Toby said. “She will be the trophy I earn to commemorate my victory, and there’s nothing that can stop me. Now, where is she?”

“Um, she died.” Jim said. “Got an infection that turned deadly.”

“Oh Jim.” Toby said. “I’m not an idiot like Dwight or Michael, I can tell when you’re lying. So, again, where is she?”

“I will never tell you.” Jim said. “I will die a horrible death before I tell you where Pam is.”

Toby reached into his desk and pulled out a serrated knife. “That can be arranged, and Michael, what’s the name of the cute little blond you’ve fallen in love with, Hailey? Anyway, I don’t remember, but I think I’m gonna find her too, and then kill her just to get my final revenge against you. Everything you’ve done, the name-calling, the threats, the interfering in my...”

Just then, Jason pulled himself free from his chair. While the others were distracted talking about their pasts, Jason was using a swiss army knife he had kept hidden in his jacket pocket to cut through his ropes. And once he did, he lunged towards Toby to stab him. After three stabs to the gut and one to the neck, Toby was dead.

“Jason, thank you.” Jim said. “But how are we gonna get out of here, there are still guards outside.”

“Leave that to me.” Dwight said as he pulled open a drawer.

“I thought Toby confiscated all your weapons after you maced me?” Andy asked.

“Yeah, Toby thought so too.” Dwight replied. “Like I’d have ever trusted that little weasel with my weapons.”

Dwight found two tasers, a pepper gel dispenser, and a shuriken. After distributing the weapons among his teammates, they went out to escape.

First, they tased the two guards standing outside their office entrance. Then, they ran down the stairs, where other guards were greeted by Dwight blasting pepper gel into their eyes.

As they ran out of the building, another guard yelled “Hey, stop them, they’re…” only for Dwight to slice his trachea open with his throwing star.

“Nice shot.” Andy said as they stole a carriage, piled in, and said goodbye to their old office.

When they got back, Angela said “Dwight, you’re okay.”

“The rest of us are fine too.” Jim said. “Thanks for asking.”

“Did you get Stanley’s pills?”

“You bet we did.” Dwight answered.

“Thank you Jesus.” Angela replied.

“Also, thanks to Jason, we don’t have to worry about the Scranton Strangler anymore.”

“Why, what happened?” Pam asked as she approached from inside.

“Some of the militia captured us and took us back to, well, to our old office. Turns out The Scranton Strangler was a disgruntled HR rep the whole time.”

“And thankfully, Jason was able to get the jump on him, stab him a couple times, and then we used Dwight’s hidden weapons to get out of there.”

“ Wait, I thought Toby confiscated all your weapons.” Pam said.

“Again, did you people really think I was going to give that human ball of slime all my weapons?” Dwight asked sarcastically.

Then, Phyllis came out and said “Everyone, come inside, dinner’s ready.”

As the crew went inside, Jason and Amanda stood still, unsure what to do.

Jim turned around and said “You did hear that she said ‘everyone’, right?”

And just like that, Jason and Amanda came inside for what would be the first of many meals they’d eat with their new family on Schrute Farms.

Until The End

(Yes I know it’s not a very creative title, but I’m not very good at those.)

“This should be a safe place to camp out for the night.” Jim Rhodes said as he entered the abandoned police station. His cybernetic right eye scanned the building. “Structural integrity is sound. No trace of any ghouls hiding in the building. Looks like we can even restock on ammo.”

“Music to my ears.” Frank Castle grumbled, lowering his assault rifle. “I’ve had to pick up Williams’ slack for the last eight miles.”

“Up yours, Castle.” A large-chinned man said, smirking at his companion. He wore a light blue shirt with long sleeves, and a shotgun strapped to his back. His right hand had been replaced with an arm he took from an old Doombot he’d found. But unlike Rhodes, he had lost his hand long before this nightmare began.

A tall woman strolled in behind them, a large machine gun slung over her shoulder. Her blonde hair was held back in a ponytail. “The ghouls seem pretty few and far between in this area. We MIGHT actually get a little shuteye tonight.”

A young brunette woman emerged from the wall like a ghost. “Luke and Marko are watching the perimeter, and John is taking a look at the garage to see if there’s anything we can drive out of here.”

“Thanks, Kate.” Rhodes said. “See if you can help these two knuckleheads set up shop while Barbara and I go look for some food.”

~~~~~~

Johnathon Blaze rummaged through the toolkit, looking for anything that might be of use.

It looked like there might be enough lug nuts of the right size laying around to get the wheels fastened onto one of the riot vans. Of course, with their luck, that probably meant that there wouldn’t be anything to get the engine working, but he would still take a look at it just to be sure.

His jacket had been torn in several places, revealing a number of nearly-healed bite marks on his arms and neck. For whatever reason, these things had not been able to turn him. Maybe the demon he shared this body with was protecting him. Maybe the Devil didn’t want one of the souls he owned to be tarnished. Whatever the reason, he had survived. But he had been reluctant to let the Rider out, especially at night. The last thing he wanted was to give the monsters out there a beacon to shamble towards.

John then heard the familiar sound of sand moving across the floor. As he turned around, he saw it gathering in the middle of the floor and taking the shape of a man.

“Hey Flint.” John said casually.

“Hey.” The man said back. “Rhodey says he found some food, whenever you can make a little time for it.”

“Thanks. Tell him I’ll be there in another hour.” John returned to his work as Flint collapsed back into a mass of sand and slid out. Before the plague began, Flint Marko had been a petty crook, even after he became a metahuman. But the end of the world has a way of changing people’s direction in life.

~~~~~~

As Luke Cage shoveled another spoonful of canned beans into his mouth, he looked at Kate sitting across the dim lantern light from him. She held an ornate metal helmet in her hands, colored red with purple trim around the edges. It had been almost a week since they had lost Erik, but the pain was still there.

“…I’m sorry we couldn’t save him.” Luke broke the silence.

“It’s okay.” Kate responded calmly. “He made a choice. He wanted the rest of us to go on.”

Even though he knew she was right, Luke still felt guilty. His unbreakable skin meant that no undead teeth could infect him. So long as he didn’t get any of their blood in his eyes or mouth, he was immune. He only wished he could have given everyone else on Earth that same protection.

As Kate gently touched her forehead to the helm, Erik’s final words to her echoed through her mind.

“If you ever find my daughter… if she’s…” He couldn’t even force the words out of his mouth. “If you can’t save her, please… just end her suffering.”

Barbara sat down next to her, opening up a can of beef.

“Do you think we’ll ever find her?” Kate asked. “Either way?”

“…I don’t know.” Barbara answered. As much as she wanted to reassure her friend, she knew Kate would want her to be honest. “I’ve lost a lot of people in this nightmare. Friends, family…” She choked on her words. “My brother. But all I do know is that so long as there’s even a chance, we just have to keep going, or else what are we even staying alive for?”

Kate started to smile. “Thanks, Barb. I really needed that.”

“No problem.” Barbara put one arm around her friend. Then she started to smirk. “So… if you had to repopulate the Earth with one of these guys…”

~~~~~~

“Have you considered what exactly we’re gonna do if we never even find what you’re looking for?” Williams asked.

“I’ve tried not to think about it too much.” Rhodey answered, looking down at his map. “We should be able to make it to the Triskelion in three days’ time. There should be enough left to get a Quinjet working, and from there I can fly it--”

“See, that’s exactly what I mean.” Williams interrupted. “What if there’s NOT enough there? Or what if the whole hanger was blown up? What’s your plan THEN?”

“I don’t KNOW, okay?” Rhodey snapped back. He took a moment to breathe and calm himself before continuing. “All I know is that it’s our best shot. If we can find ANY way across the Atlantic, we have to take it. Latveria and Wakanda are the two most technologically advanced countries on the planet. If there’s anywhere left on Earth that hasn’t been overrun, it’s one of them.”

“And what if they’re gone?” Williams asked. “What if they DID find some way into Wakanda? What if Latveria’s already launched itself into space and left us?” He collapsed into a chair. “Don’t you ever get tired of going on… when you don’t even know if what we’re looking for is even gonna be there?”

“Of course we’re tired of it.” Castle spoke up from the corner of the room. “We’re ALL tired of it. It’s the goddamn apocalypse. But when has being tired ever been enough to make any of us throw in the towel? I’ve been in literal, God-forsaken war zones. And lemme tell ya, Williams, this is nowhere NEAR as hopeless as any of those felt. So I don’t know about you, but I’m not givin’ up until those things take my last damn rib!”

Williams started to perk up. “Well unless you’ve got me to watch your back, they probably will.”

~~~~~~

After a long night of sleeping in shifts, they were ready to get moving. Miraculously, John had found an engine and managed to get it working. Barbara and Luke were loading the last of their supplies into the armored vehicle while Williams topped off the gas tanks. Castle made sure the guns stored in the truck were all in working condition. Kate and Rhodey were sitting in the front, with John in the driver’s seat.

“You okay?” Kate asked.

“Yeah.” Rhodey said. “It’s just… sometimes even I’m not so sure about our chances.”

Kate put a hand on his shoulder. “With a leader like you, we’ll be just fine.”

Just outside the truck, a mass of sand quickly formed into Flint Marko.

“Guys, we’ve got a problem.” He said.

“What is it?” Barbara asked, nervously.

“There’s about a few dozen zombies closing in around the area right now.” He answered.

Luke turned to Rhodes. “Jim, we’re not ready to ship out yet.”

Johnathon Blaze stood up from his seat. “How much time do we need?”

“Three, maybe five more minutes.” Luke answered.

John nodded. “Frank.” As Castle turned his head, John tossed him the keys to the truck. “Don’t wait for me, just get going as soon as you can.” He stepped off of the vehicle and walked toward the garage door.

“John, what are you doing?” Kate asked him.

John turned back to look at his friends. They could see his flesh start to glow red as smoke began to rise from his face. He smiled.

“Don’t worry.” He said. “I’ll catch up.”

WRITER’S NOTE: Hope you all liked this little story I threw together. I got the idea for this after watching “What If…?” Episode 5. But I didn’t want to re-hash any characters that appeared in that, so I just used everyone ELSE who I thought should be survivors. Obviously ‘Williams’ is Ash from the “Evil Dead” franchise (which did a crossover with Marvel Zombies), and ‘Barbara’ is named after one of the characters from Romero’s original “Night of the Living Dead”.

Night Near Manhat

"Ariel! Ookla! We ride!" shouted Thundarr, and the three of them gallopped away, following the strange craft that blazed through the sky, clearly about to crash. Moments before, there had been a loud thunderclap, a bright flash in the sky, and out of that had come the flaming ship.

The ship descended faster and faster on its diaganol course, and as it got closer to the ground, it passed over a village of straw huts. The heat from its burning hull caused a few of the huts to spontaneously combust as it passed over. Without even slowing down, Ariel raised her hands above her head, they glowed, and water from a nearby river leapt into the air and fell on the huts, extinguishing the flames.

As they gallopped through the village in their pursuit of the craft, the villagers waved and cheered them on, thankful that their homes had been saved. Ookla smiled and waved back, roaring happily. Ariel smirked at her lion-like friend, and they poured on the speed to keep up with Thundarr.

"The strange ship is going to crash near Manhat! Do you think this has anything to do with the Stone Wizard we've been looking for?" Thundarr called back to Ariel.

Ariel shook her head as she caught up. "Whoever he is, he's been using warps like that to bring technology to him. That ship seems to qualify!"

Ookla growled and pointed ahead.

"Yes, Ookla! I see it! The ship has crashed into the river!" shouted Thundarr.

Part of the ship stuck out of the water at an odd angle, it's hull steaming as the plunge into the river had put out the flames. As Thundarr, Ariel, and Ookla got to the river bank, a hatch still showing above water hissed open, and out of it levitated a man, a woman, and a strange creature somewhat like Ookla, but it wasn't a Mok.

"Wizards," Thundarr said in surprise. "but none of them are made of stone!"

"No," said Ariel. "This is something... different."

The barbarian jumped down off of his horse, and ran for the strange trio. "Well, if they're good, we will call them friends. But if they're not..." he growled. He grabbed the hilt of the Sunsword from his wrist, and it blazed to life.

Seeing this, the three strangers pulled strange, stick-like objects from their belts, and with a hum, glowing shafts of light extended from them.

"Demon dogs!" cried Thundarr. "They have sunswords too!"

"Who are you?" called the woman from the ship. "And where did you get such a strange lightsaber?"

"'Light...saber?'" Thundarr said, confused.

"Thundarr, wait!" called Ariel as she jumped off of her horse, and ran up to him. "These people are not our enemies." Gesturing towards a wrecked car, her hand glowed, and images began to take shape in the front passenger window. As they did so, she told them what they were seeing. "Our friends come from another universe. They are siblings- Drom and 'Tar Solo- and their fur covered friend, Tubacca. The ship they crashed in the river is The Copper Eagle. They were fleeing a bounty hunter when they hid their ship behind an asteroid. Faking an explosion on the asteroid's surface to make the hunter think they were gone, they were too close, and were thrown away from the asteroid, and through the warp that brought them here."

"Lords of Light! You come from the stars!" exclaimed Thundarr as he extinguished his Sunsword.

"Yes," said 'Tar as she and her companions extinguished their lightsabers as well. "We were fleeing for our lives, but we don't know where that warp came from."

"It came from me!" came a voice from a distance. They heard thunderous footsteps, and were astonished to see a group of men made of stone emerge from the trees.

"It's the Stone Wizard!" said Thundarr.

"Worse," said Ariel. "It's Gemini, and he's leading the rock soldiers!"

"You are the Stone Wizard?" called Thundarr, once again igniting his Sunsword.

"Yes! When you left me in the rock soldiers' pool, you thought I would be a stone statue forever! It just took time to be able to move, and now I share the strength and stony hide that they have! But moving in this form is slow. So, I've been building machines that are able to carry us faster, using whatever machinery we have been able to take! And we shall have that ship!"

"The Eagle?" said Drom. "No way," and he and his two friends reignited their lightsabers.

Gemini's eyes grew wide at that sight, and he commanded his rock soldiers, "Get them! And bring me their weapons! I will have that ship!"

Using his magic, Gemini raised the ship from the river and brought it ashore while the rock soldiers charged. Thundarr, Drom, 'Tar, and Tubacca stood ready with their swords. Ariel raised her hands above her head, and they began glowing with magic. Ookla uprooted a tree to use as a club, he and Tubacca both roaring.

Just before the rock soldiers would have reached them, a warp of bright blue light opened up between the two groups, and a man stepped through. Firing a laser blast from a handgun in the open space, he yelled, "STOP!"

All did so, looking at him with confusion.

"Nexus Ranger Roderick Nim! There's been an unregulated space-time warp in this area!"

"You!" gasped 'Tar.

Nim looked at the girl and her friends somewhat frustrated. "You again? You can't be here."

"Tell him that," Drom said, pointing at Gemini.

"You opened the warp?" Nim asked Gemini.

"You dare to question me?" the wizard said, his head rotating to his evil face.

Nim nodded. "Right." Pulling a couple of glowing cubes from his pocket, he tossed one at The Copper Eagle, and it was seemingly sucked into the cube.

"My ship!" shouted both Drom and Gemini.

The ranger threw the other cube at Gemini, who was captured in like fashion, and said, "You're under arrest for cross-reality tampering." He picked up the cubes and put them in his pocket. Looking at Drom, 'Tar, and Tubacca, he said, "I can get you home, and give you back your ship once we get there."

"Let's go," Drom said, just accepting the situation.

"Great," said 'Tar with relief.

Tubacca growled happily.

Nim pressed a button on the hilt of his gun, and fired it next to the river bank, opening a return warp. Looking to the assembled group, he said, "Sorry for the disturbance," nodded for Drom and company to follow, and walked through the nexus. They entered the warp behind him, and the nexus closed.

All was quiet for a few seconds, and then one of the rock soldiers said, "We are free of the wizard!"

Thundarr said, "I think we are all free of the wizard."

"At long last," agreed Ariel.

Ookla dropped the uprooted tree and growled triumphantly.

The rock soldiers cheered along with him.

On the other side of the nexus, the warp opened, and Nim and company stepped through to a clearing near the ranger's apartment. Pulling a cube from his pocket, he tossed it on the ground, and The Copper Eagle reappeared. Opening another warp in front of the ship big enough for it to pass through, he smiled at the other three, and said, "All aboard."

"Thank you," said 'Tar.

"Yeah, thanks," said Drom, reaching out to shake the ranger's hand.

"It's what I do," said Nim, shaking his hand. "Just try to stay in your own universe from here on, okay?"

Drom chuckled. "Sure. Come on, you two," he said to his sister and friend.

Tubacca stopped at Nim, tilted his head back, and snuffed happily. He slapped Nim on the shoulder, making the ranger stumble a couple of steps to the side. The wookiee laughed at that, and followed onto the ship. The hatch closed, the thrusters fired up a few moments later, the ship leapt through the nexus, and the portal winked out behind them.

Nim stood there in the clear night air for a minute, then pulled the other cube from his pocket. "Hmph. Wizards." Pocketing the cube, he headed for his grav-cycle, so he could deliver his prisoner. "Well, now you get to be cellmates with a Sableye."

****

Notes: Lightsabers and wookiee belong to Disney. Thundarr, Ariel, Ookla the Mok, Gemini, rock soldiers, and the Sunsword belong to Ruby-Spears Production (makers of Thundarr the Barbarian). Gemini having turned to stone comes from the episode "Last Train to Doomsday." Sableye belongs to Pokemon (Niantic). Nexus Ranger(s), Roderick Nim, his cubes and gun, Drom Solo, 'Tar Solo, Tubacca, The Copper Eagle, and the name Stone Wizard are mine. Story and original characters copyright 2021 Chris Bishop.