The Domino Archipelago, whose capital was
Demiguise, had been taking in survivors of the Green Flu, those who weren’t
infected, who had been evacuated from towns and cities.
They had flooded the island chain to the
point where the island chain had had to close its doors, unable to take any
more people, but unable to send anyone off world in case someone had slipped
through the testing process, someone not infected, but not clean either.
Someone with the dreaded title, carrier.
Everyone was tested before they were sent
here by the military of the various countries that had a pact with the Clan who
owned the island chain, and only immunes and those who hadn’t been infected yet
were supposed to have been sent there.
No one knew where the carriers were sent,
no one really wanted to ask, there were theories, which ranged from the
carriers being sent to live on a different island chain (that was the hopeful
ones) to they’d been taken out and shot (the more pessimistic, and,
unfortunately, realistic ones), but no one really knew.
Once the island chain stopped accepting
people, they started spacing everyone out, giving people enough room, while, at
the same time, the lab on Kingdom, the same lab that had provided the cure for
the Shadow Plague which had devastated the Duelling community four years ago, were
working on a vaccine for the virus.
There were rumours that that wasn’t the
only thing they were working on, the rumours said that the lab on Kingdom was
working on something just as good as a vaccine, if not better.
There was the possibility that they were
working on a cure.
Not those such rumours were allowed to be
spread around. The more realistic of the people gathered in the Domino
Archipelago, happily reminded anyone they heard spreading such rumours that the
virus caused mutations, loss of mental capacity and in the greater majority of
cases, meant death wasn’t permanent, unless preceded by a large amount of
bullets, and you couldn’t cure death.
As long as the Domino Archipelago was
immune, there was hope. And while the military was testing everyone that passed
through, there was little to no chance of a carrier reaching the islands.
But little chance wasn’t the same as no
chance at all.
It only took one carrier, one person whose
blood sample had been mixed up with some poor unfortunate immune who had been
‘sent away’ with the carriers, one person who hadn’t realised they were
carrying the disease until they had passed it on to one of those who hadn’t
come into contact with the infected,
One kiss and Demiguise was destroyed.
The virus spread quickly once the first
person had turned, as those who weren’t immune quickly became infected and
those who were immune were trapped with the zombies without any weaponry as
Demiguise went into lockdown to prevent the spread of infection to the other
islands in the chain.
The Domino Clan tried to halt the spread of
the infection, guarding the immunes and those uninfected who still lived, using
spell and weapon to fight off the horde, though Shadow Duellists weren’t
allowed to summon after it became obvious that Duel Monsters, while effective
at mass zombie destruction could turn insane if they were bitten, but between
the sheer volume of infected and the fact that there was no backup, it wasn’t
long before survivors were fending for themselves in groups of three or four,
just trying to find somewhere safe to hole up, grateful for the fact that House
Elves appeared to be immune.
For one group of survivors, the locker room
by one of the swimming pools was a safe house, while another group had locked
themselves in the Millennium Room, where the most sacred items the Clan owned
were kept, another group had made the mistake of trying the maze that ran
underneath Demiguise’s surface, where the Basilisk had once hidden, but now
hunted, injured and uncaring after attacks by what it perceived to be humans.
Thea’s batch had picked out the largest
bathroom on the thirteen floor that had one windows and one door, barricading
themselves inside and waiting it out, ready to defend themselves if necessary
but praying they wouldn’t need to. They’d heard the horror stories of the
survivors who had been sent to Demiguise, had seen what hordes looked like,
they didn’t really want to be introduced to the mutated infected, the ‘special’
ones as the scientists had referred to them.
There were four of them in here.
Athena Muto-Potter, was a Shadow Mage who
had inherited the throne and the title of Pharaoh when her older brother had
been killed by a horde, a title that didn’t really meant much any more,
considering the world was in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, and would
probably pass on to her cousin who was safely living up on the Moon if she was
killed. Thea, who should have been up there with him, but had stayed to help
with the crowds that were piling in, hadn’t known she was immune until she’d
been bitten on the way up here and hadn’t turned.
Rob Wheeler, who had known he was immune,
having been in the parties sent out to recover stranded survivors, was a
Magical Alchemist, which had been rather handy in allowing them to barricade
this room as he had managed to transmute part of the wall and floor into the
bars that now ran from one side of the door to the other and merged almost
seamlessly into the wall.
Michelle Evens was a witch and thankfully
not a witch in the same sense as the special infected kind. She hadn’t long
finished her NEWTs before this had all kicked off, and, thankfully, had always
been rather good at Defence against the Dark Arts, even if this hadn’t been exactly
how she’d planned to put it into practise, and had proved immune when the
airport she’d been planning to use to go on holiday had been overrun by zombies
without any warning.
And last but not least was Troy Weasley, a
fighter with the ability to generate Ki to use a weapon. He tired quickly when
he did, but his physical strength and the fact Rob had made a sword
specifically for him, made Troy
rather effective against the hordes that had swarmed them. He wasn’t as sure as
the others that unchanged meant immune, and as such was keeping quiet when the
others talked about what they would do once they were rescued, though they knew
rescue was unlikely.
They needed to talk about it, because none
of them wanted to think about the possibility of having to grow old in this
room and finally die of old age, or worse, having what was known as a ‘Tank’
break through the wall and kill them all.
“There is a way out you know.” Michelle
said cautiously, pointedly looking at the youngest member of the group. “As
long as we’re careful.”
“Not worth it.” Thea shook her head. “I’m
not risking my Duel Monsters attempting to get them to take us to the Monster
World.”
“But we’re all immune, what’s the risk?”
The witch demanded. It wasn’t the first time she’d tried to get Thea to take
them to the Monster World and then out to another island and she was getting a
little frustrated with the teenager’s refusal to do so.
“We could be carriers, instead of immune,”
She indicated herself and Troy, as the pair of them hadn’t been tested before
as they hadn’t been in contact with the Green Flu, though she didn’t really
want to consider the possibility considering what was probably going to happen
if she was and they were rescued, “And spread the disease to the Monster World.
We could get lost in the Shadow Realm.” The Pharaoh ticked the possibilities
off on her fingers, “A horde could break in and infect the monsters, and then
we’d be in trouble or have you forgotten what that infected Dark Knight did to
Kendra?”
Michelle shook her head and sulked, trying
not to admit that the teen was right. She wanted to be with her husband and
children, who had been the very last to get through the portal to Sentinel
Island before Demiguise’s lockdown protocol had been activated and it had shut
down.
“Besides, I told my deck not to come if I
called, because of the virus.” Thea sighed, “They didn’t like it, but they’re
not going to come to me until I’ve had a chance to hitch a ride with a Duel
Monster and visit them to give them the all clear.”
“You do realise they probably won’t hold to
that.” Rob snorted, more then used to Duel Monsters and how they reacted when
their Duellist was injured. “If they sense you’re in trouble…”
“How much more trouble could we be in?”
Michelle demanded.
The floor shook and a bellow could be heard
through the door.
“You had to say it didn’t you!” Troy scowled getting to
his feet.
“It can’t be!” Michelle protested, drawing
her wand and getting to her feet, “It took weeks for the normal infected to
mutate into the specials!”
“Shut it.” Thea snapped, holding up a hand.
The floor continued shaking, loud footsteps
and grunting getting louder as the shaking grew more persistent.
“I…” Michelle started, stopping when she
was glowered at by the others.
The footsteps stopped for a moment.
Everyone held their breaths.
“Move
along, please move along…” Thea kept her plea
silent, aware that the Tank wasn’t telepathic and as such couldn’t hear her.
Slowly but surely the footsteps started
again, getting quieter as the huge special infected slammed his way down the
corridor.
“You don’t get to say that again.” Rob
turned to look at Michelle and chuckled, relief palatable.
“Magic users mutate faster, remember?” Troy growled. “Julian
kept his infection to himself and became a Hunter in a matter of hours, it
figures that turning into a Tank would only take a little longer then that,
it’s a matter of size conversion.”
“Tanks outside the door. Great.” Thea’s
shoulders sank.
“Just Tank, singular.” Rob reminded her, “Not
Tanks, not yet anyway. Besides, Tanks are territorial. You won’t get more then
one a floor.”
“Yes, cause that’s so reassuring.” Michelle
growled.
“Cool your jets, I doubt there’ll be more
then fifteen Tanks in total, and we might be able to avoid some of them if we
keep quiet.” Rob sighed, “They aren’t exactly common. Out of a hundred people
who mutate, twenty turn into specials, out of those twenty maybe four become
Tanks, the only one rarer is the Witch.”
“And pray we don’t come across any of
those.” Thea shuddered, having heard the stories and seen some of those who had
come back injured but alive from a fight with one.
A pop made them all jump and wheel around,
paranoia kicking in as they grabbed their weapons, having not been expecting a
House Elf for another hour or so.
The House Elf looked unperturbed, “Garnish
was sent by High Priest Daniel.” The House Elf said, looking around and nodding
to itself, “Garnish on important mission to find survivors. High Priest say
rescue vehicle being sent when I go back. Arrive at glass palace within two
hours.”
“We’ll try and be there. Could you
apologise to the High Priest for me?”
“Garnish will, but only if Princess tells
him why.”
“My brother fell.”
The House Elf straightened and looked at
her, considering, “Yes, Pharaoh.” The House Elf vanished with a loud pop, and
they didn’t have time to wonder where it had gone as the hordes outside the
door started howling and trying to tear the door apart.
Thea and Troy moved to the front of the group, while
Rob and Michelle covered them from a distance, giving them space to use their
swords, while having enough room to cast their spells.
As the zombies started getting in, Rob
transmuted the bars into spikes, impaling those who had made their way through
the door and giving the pair with swords enough time to deal with those who
were coming through the door.
“I vote…” Thea grunted as she took a
zombie’s head off. Not the first time she’d used the Sword of Dark Rites to do
so, and probably not the last, “We clear this lot, then run like mad before
that Tank comes back. All in favour?”
“Aye.” Three voices agreed.
A screech sounded through the door.
“Move back!” Rob grabbed Thea’s shoulder
and pulled her away from the door, and Troy moved aside just in time to avoid getting
a face full of acid, thrown up by a Spitter, the splash from which coated the
floor and left them fighting from on top of the toilet, in the bath and from
inside the shower.
“Reducto!” Michelle’s spell shot through
the door, and there was a second screech and then more acid covered the floor
as something exploded.
“Spitter.” Rob hissed, frustrated, watching
the acid slowly disappear into the floor, presumably to continue its work
further down.
“It’s gone, let’s go.” Thea said, moving towards the door, sword raised,
standing to one side and looking cautiously around, before deciding it was safe
and heading out with the others in tow, racing down the corridor, heading for
the stairwell.
Something let out a moaning screech and
lurched out of one of the doors to their right, causing Thea to have to leap
back to avoid being wailed on by an attacking infected.
Rob, who had transmuted the broken door
into a baseball bat, took a swing at the zombie, knocking it back into the
wall, where a ki blast from Troy finished if
off.
Unfortunately the light and the sound
brought six more zombies running down the hall towards them from the front and
three more out of rooms down the corridor.
“Shit.”
