Chapter 2
It was 7:03pm when the world ended.
It was 8:28pm when Regulus's world ended.
He was sitting on the couch, in between his mother and Sirius, watching some guy on the TV go on and on about this new virus he was developing or something. Usually, Regulus might've been interested in it, but he was currently thinking about whether or not he would accept Barty's offer to go to the convenience store at midnight. Why Barty wanted to do this, he had no idea.
"Let me change the channel," Sirius complained from his left. Regulus could only try to prepare for the argument from his right.
"No. Don't you know who that man is?" His mother said sharply. Regulus, who was previously looking down at his lap, looked up at the TV. Words flew by in a line at the bottom of the TV, but he was able to catch the name 'Tom Riddle.' Regulus straightened up when he read it. Tom Riddle was a renowned scientist, known for his innovative, though dangerous technology. Regulus had posters of the man and his creations in his room, how had he missed the fact that it was Riddle on his screen?
Sirius deflated beside him. "Fucking Riddle, blah, blah, blah... Whatever." Regulus immediately tensed. He felt the weight leaving the couch from his right.
Regulus forced his eyes onto the TV in front of him. Riddle, in front of a large crowd of people, holding a large glass aquarium, and talking about the snake inside of it. He was talking about how it was still extremely dangerous at this stage, but as long as it remained in the cage, it would be fine, and he could still work on developing the dangerous virus the snake had contracted for good. Regulus felt Sirius stiffen up beside him, and he involuntarily looked away from the TV, and up at his mother. Her hand was raised to slap Sirius, and there was calm rage in her eyes. "You do not swear." She said, and when Regulus was sure that Walburga was about to slap Sirius, there was a loud noise from the TV. Everyone's head snapped around to watch the screen.
Riddle had a bullet wound in his chest, and he fell forward onto the podium he was standing behind. The aquarium fell from his hand and shattered on the ground.
The snake was immediately slithering away from the shattered glass, and into the crowd of people. The snake left the view of the camera, but Regulus heard screaming. Then Regulus heard what sounded like flesh being ripped apart, and then more glass shattering. The camera was suddenly being moved. It was being pulled down towards the ground, evidently being held by a man with a large piece of his neck ripped out. "Help me," he begged, blood bubbling out of the wound and his mouth. Then, his eyes rolled back as he dropped the camera. It fell beside him, and Regulus watched the rest of the scene in horror. The man's neck snapped to the side, and his entire body contorted. His bones snapped to the side, and then back into place. His eyes began to bleed, and he convulsed on the ground. His head lolled to the side to look to the camera for a moment.
Then, the man was standing. He was faster than Regulus could've imagined for a man who was about to die a moment ago. He grabbed the camera and smashed it against the ground, and the TV screen went to a static grey.
Everyone was silent.
Walburga's hand fell to her side, and Sirius was still. Regulus looked at the clock. 7:03pm. He stood. Regulus looked to Walburga and Sirius, and Sirius had tears pricking at his eyes. Walburga was standing completely still, jaw slack as she stared at the grey TV screen. Her hands shook.
Sirius was immediately running out the front door. No one stopped him. Not when the door slammed shut, and not when he was running.
Walburga's voice shook when she spoke. "Regulus, to your room." Regulus hesitated for a long moment, but then he obeyed. He went upstairs and into his room. He did not speak when he sat down on his bed. He took his phone out of his pocket, feeling numb.
Barty: What the fuck is going on? My mum's crying and shit
Barty: She's just pointing at the TV when I ask her
Barty: Hey Reg?
Regulus: Tom Riddle was killed on TV. He was holding an aquarium with a snake in it. The snake was carrying a deadly virus... People are being infected now.
Barty: Tf
Barty: Wtaf
Barty: What's the virus
Regulus: It's almost like it turned a man into a zombie. I think people were eating each other.
7:33pm read
Regulus shook himself off, looking out the window. He didn't know what to do. Should he prepare for zombie apocalypse? Should he cry? Should he just do nothing? This couldn't actually be a fucking zombie apocalypse, could it? No, no way. That was something of fiction. A zombie apocalypse... No way that was actually happening.
Regulus stared at his wall silently, lost in thought.
Be calm, he told himself. Think logically. He had jumped to a conclusion too quickly. Who was he, Barty? Obviously media had eaten away at his brain to make him assume crazy things. Zombies. Yeah right, he scoffed. The crowd had probably just gone crazy when the snake got out of its cage. Yes, that made sense. Far more than a goddamn zombie apocalypse.
And as for that man... He probably just had a... Prior medical issue going on. Yes, because that made sense. Far more than Riddle somehow creating a zombie apocalypse.
Besides, even if it was, the place it began was very far away compared to Regulus's city, wasn't it? Whatever virus it was going around, it would be contained before it ever reached him. Yes, because that made sense.
Regulus was violently torn away from his thoughts by an ear-piercing shriek downstairs. Regulus was off his bed before he had time to think, clambering down the stairs. The sight that met him was sickening. There were people in his home. People with twisted limbs and bleeding eyeballs. Someone was clawing his mother's chest open as she tripped and fell back against the couch. Regulus didn't have time to process what it meant when she stopped screaming.
Orion was backed up against the stove, face to face with a man with his skin turning a milky grey colour. Orion had a knife pointed towards the man, ready to stab him.
Regulus could do nothing except watch in horror as his father thrusted the knife into the man's chest, and the man only walked forward, undeterred by the gushing wound. The man, or, whatever that thing was, reached out and pulled Orion's head forward by his hair. Orion fell against the counter opposite of the stove. The man took the knife out of his own chest, and struggled to stick it into Orion's skull. Orion's broken voice echoed throughout the entire house as the monster first mangled his ear, and then finally pushed past the bone tissue. Orion's body went limp against the counter.
The creature removed the knife from Orion's skull, taking blood with it. Then it stabbed into his skull again. Then, again. And another few times.
It ran the knife along his entire head, then began to peel the skin back. At that moment, Regulus had to look away. He didn't have much time to recollect himself though, before a woman with an arm torn off was approaching him, reaching out for him and hissing. Regulus fell back against the stairs, and then crawled up them, tripping over his own hands and feet as the woman chased him up the stairs.
Regulus got to his room, and slammed the door behind him. It was already being bashed in from the other side. With tears in his eyes, Regulus ran to his window. He fought to get it open.
The woman had broken into his room, and was running at him. Not like how zombies are often portrayed as being slow and drooling, no... This thing was faster and stronger than a regular human. Regulus flung the window open, and jumped onto the roof. The woman followed behind him quickly, the sound of her hissing pressed in on Regulus's ears.
He didn't have any time to think before he was sliding down the roof, the ice propelling him downwards.
He was flying, for just a moment, before he hit the ground with a horrible crack. His entire body was tense, and the ice on the ground had definitely done something to his arm, judging purely based off of the pain in it that felt like electricity the moment he moved it.
Regulus pulled himself off the ground, full on sobbing with the pain. He ran to the front of his house, without looking back for the woman from before.
In front of his house, he saw another crazy sight. Fucking Barty was already there, which he honestly should've expected. Though, what she was doing he never could've planned for. On the ground beside her was a duffel bag, Regulus had no idea what could be in it. In her hands she was waving around a sledge hammer that was quite obviously too heavy for her.
They were surrounded by the crazy zombie things, and they were spinning around laughing like a maniac as they made zombies fall to the ground, and then they'd continue to bash their skulls in until brains were flying everywhere. Barty was already covered in blood and other things that Regulus didn't want to specify.
Barty caught sight of Regulus and grinned. A zombie charged at him when he wasn't looking, but he threw his sledgehammer full force at the thing, and it collapsed on the ground.
Barty ran to Regulus, and before he had time to argue, he was being dragged away from his childhood home.