End Of Days

1: The End

The school was on fire. A blazing heap of buildings, filling the air with smoke.

There were people screaming and running for their lives, and a swarm of creatures chasing them, mouths unhinging awkwardly. Tommy could hear the screams of panicked students that he used to share classes with.

He could see black liquid and blood staining the ground. There were bodies on the ground, and people hunched over them, using their mouths to tear chunks of flesh off. The creatures let out horrible cries and screeches as they mowed down another victim, silencing the poor soul before they even had a chance.

Tommy felt the shock radiate through him. "No," He whispered brokenly. Charlie was right.

This was the end of the world.

"No." Tommy said again, reaching for the door handle, but Schlatt was already putting his foot on the gas. "No! Stop, go back! My friends are in there!"

"Tommy if I go back you are going to die!" Schlatt shouted back at him, gripping the steering wheel tightly.

"What were those things?" Tubbo's eyes were wide with horror.

"I think they're zombies." Charlie said, turning around in his chair. He gripped the headrest tightly. "Or something like that. They want flesh, and I don't know if they just eat you, or if they infect you or what, but--"

"You're insane." Tommy breathed, shaking his head. "You've lost it, Charlie. Can you hear yourself right now?"

"Tommy they came through my house and they--" Charlie couldn't finish the sentence. The words died in his throat. Tommy thought he saw tears in his eyes.

"Tommy this isn't a joke." Schatt said firmly from the front of the car. "This is very much fucking real."

Tommy took a shaking breath. Montville was long behind them now, little more than a cloud of dust in the rear view mirror. "How did--what happened? How did this happen? We were in town like thirty minutes ago and it was fine! Tubbo, wasn't it fine?"

Tubbo nodded numbly. The bag of camera film and prints sat awkwardly in his arms.

"I don't fuckin' know." Schlatt was a little bit calmer now. Good. As long as Schlatt didn't panic, they would be fine. "All I know is that we were living it up at Charlie's, and now our entire town is just fucking gone."

"Gone?" Tubbo asked hollowly. He looked out the window again, but there was only trees and bushes on the side of the road.

"Yeah." Charlie said quietly. "They just came through the town like a flash flood. We barely made it out."

Tommy looked out the window and tried to swallow the lump in his throat and the bitter pain in his chest. Things were okay. They were finally okay, and then this happens. They were meant to go to the beach sometime next week, and enjoy the semester break together.

He gently twisted the dials of his camera. Possibly the last relic of his life as he knew it.

Things might never be okay again.

---

They drove for a long time.

The road seemed to stretch forever in front of Schlatt's old car. Every time they approached a town, they went a long way around it. Sometimes they saw the creatures from a distance. They passed a couple of lone structures with open doors and broken windows, and everyone knew what must have happened there.

Their phones didn't get reception anymore. Tommy spent half an hour trying to reach his brothers anyway. It was a futile effort.

When the sun was starting to set, and Schlatt's car was finally starting to run low on gas, they turned around and made their way back around to a town that they'd already passed. Hopefully the hoard of zombie-like creatures had already passed through.