Mark sat at his table at Pax signing papers and taking pictures with fans. This year wasn't any different from any other time he had done it. The fans were enjoying themselves and he did his best to make their experiences memorable. Beside him, he joked with Sean to break the awkward tension that had formed between them since trying to destroy the idea of 'Septiplier.' Sean and himself were still friends, but their relationship had become strained over the last few years. He wanted to fix that. He had been so close with him. However, Sean was keeping him at a distance as of late. With the end of Septiplier, Sean didn't seem to be himself anymore. Sean had gone through two failed relationships and a mass touring schedule that was taking a toll on him. Sean would never burden anyone with it... but Mark could see it. Sean was depressed and stressed out. His best friend was backsliding, and he wouldn't let anyone help him. Mark couldn't help feeling like it had been his fault. If he hadn't pushed to end Septiplier so hard for the sake of his own girlfriend, maybe his best friend wouldn't be such a stranger now.
Mark reached out to pat Sean's shoulder. It was meant to be friendly and comforting. Yet, Sean awkwardly shifted in his seat to discreetly slide his shoulder out from under his hand. Mark dropped his hand with a heavy heart, before accepting a picture handed to him by a fan. Giving the fan his best smile, he leaned over the table to sign his name on the picture. However, his mind was miles from what he was doing. It was replaying the night that they had gone out to the movies together. They had been enjoying the movie, when Sean had kissed him before the lights turned back on. He could recall the fear in Sean's eyes that night. The desperation to know what was on his mind. They both had prior commitments. Girlfriends. The kiss had caught him off guard and he had bolted. Sean tried to follow him to explain, but right there in the mall... Mark had ended whatever Sean had been trying to start. Glancing over at Sean now, he regretted that night. He could see that Sean was smiling on the outside, but on the inside... Sean was in agony.
There was a deep loneliness in his bright blue eyes that had never been there before. Mark finished taking a picture with a fan, then asked Sean gently. "Hey Sean, do you wanna get dinner after this?" Sean finished signing his name on a picture, before answering lightly in a numb voice. "No thanks. I was going to get something with Robin. Say hi to Amy for me." Mark felt his heart sink to the pit of his stomach. How could he ever make this up to him? Could he even salvage the friendship they once had? He turned to face Sean, asking more hopefully. "Sean, please? We could do something. Just us?" Sean handled a picture to a fan with a smile, before it faded as he looked at him to answer. "Sorry, Mark. I don't wanna give people the wrong idea." His words cut him deep. He felt like he understood what Sean was implying to him with those cold blue eyes and grim voice. Mark swallowed down the lump in his throat. He was going to try and ask him something... when people started screaming in the building.
Mark didn't think anything of it at first. People screamed at Pax all the time. He tried to wait for the screaming to pipe down enough for Sean to hear him. However, the screaming just kept getting louder and louder. Soon everyone was staring off toward the noise. There was a mass of people that were screaming and bolting for the exits. As whatever it was drew nearer, the bystanding crowd began to bolt for the exits as well. This caused the exits to jam up as people tried to shove and wedge their way through like wild animals. Sean kept his eyes on the stampeding crowd, asking him over the screaming. "What's going on?!" Mark gave him a shrug in response. This was all new to him. Their Pax security moved closer to them protectively, yelling into their earpieces. "What's happening?!" The crowd slammed into the tables to avoid a figure that leapt out at the mass of people collected around the exits. The figure tackled a man to the ground and bloodcurdling screams filled the air.
As the crowd rushed to get away, Mark saw the figure through the crowd of bodies. Mark's breath caught in his throat thinking he might be imagining this. The figure rose to its feet and roared at the screaming crowd with a face smeared in fresh blood. It was just a human man at first glance, but his eyes were a bloodshot red. The man growled like an animal at the screaming crowd, his veins standing out along his exposed skin. Then the man attacked someone else. The man moved with an inhuman speed. Using his hands and feet to chase after someone in the crowd. The man jumped over tables and bounced off walls like a parkour expert to tackle down his prey with precision. Mark saw the man tear out a woman's throat, feeling his blood run cold. If this was a cosplay thing, someone had taken it WAY too far. The security with them, started getting antsy as more of these types of people started appearing. A woman from the second floor jumped down to a steel beam like a cat. She let out a high screech, before her long inhuman tongue shot down to wrap around the neck of a person running away on the ground floor.
Her tongue pulled the man into the air, causing him to dangle like a worm on a hook as he suffocated. Sean backed into Mark's chest as a man crept around the wall of their table booth with bile running down the corners of his mouth like drool. The bile man's skin and eyes were a sickly green color. Mark grabbed Sean's shoulders nervously, when the bile man jerked his head toward movement. The bile man spewed out a burst of thick steaming bile that coated three people. Others slipped on the bile, splashing onto it with wails of disgust. One of the men that got soaked in it, tried to rub it away from his eyes and burst out into coughing grunts. The people around him ran away as his body began to steam and expand into a large hulking brute. The bile man then turned his almost snake like neck to look back at them with a slimy grin. Mark didn't bother waiting anymore, he grabbed Sean by the arm and yanked him into a run. All around them people screamed and tried to avoid these strange people.
The hulking brute of a man charged past them, going full speed straight ahead to trample over the mass of people at one of the far exits. His momentum plowing through them, before he smashed the thick glass windows. Mark yanked Sean down to his knees as a woman with bloodshot eyes leapt over a table at them. She missed them, slamming into someone else. Mark pulled Sean to his feet, trying to make a break for any of the windows that were being smashed to open more ways out. Something blew up in the back of the building, knocking everyone off their feet as thick smoke filled the air and the remaining sprinklers went off. Sean leapt over the end of the table, extending a hand out for him to help him over quickly. Mark took his hand, when Sean screamed and fell to the floor. Mark rolled over the table screaming his name as Sean was dragged across the wet tile floor by a long tongue. Mark picked up the nearest chair, racing after Sean. One of the strange men was crouched on all fours, its long tongue retracting as it pulled Sean closer by his ankle.
Mark flung the chair at the inhuman thing, catching it across the face. The creature's tongue released Sean as it was struck, causing it to retreat a bit for safety. It wasn't hurt though, and it was coming back! Mark snatched Sean's arm, practically dragging him away. Sean eventually found his footing, limping beside him as he led them out onto the street. It was the middle of the day, but you'd never know it. The whole area was filled with thick white and black smoke. Swat patrols were moving into the chaos to help. Only to be attacked as the inhuman things started to escape the building. Mark heard an ambulance approaching in the thick smoke. However, as it came into sight... a hulking brute of a woman slammed into it! Her hulking body dented the side of the ambulance from the impact, causing the vehicle to flip over. The panicking crowd slammed into Mark so hard that he was pushed away from Sean. Mark screamed his name, but Sean was knocked to the ground and he lost sight of him.
Fighting against the panicking crowd was like trying to fight a raging rapid. No one wanted to go back and not going with the crowd was killing people. People were trampling the slow and feeble to get away. Anyone that tripped or was shoved to the ground was run over. Used to slow down the inhuman creatures. Mark felt like his heart was ripped from his chest. He didn't care about himself. He just wanted to know if Sean was alright. He managed to move with the crowd to get to the edge, huddling against the building corner to look back. He saw many people being taken down and eaten, but none of them looked like Sean. Where was he? The thought of not knowing scared him worse than the creatures did. Mark screamed his name over the panicked screams of the crowd, his eyes scanning everyone that he could. He couldn't bring himself to leave without him. Another explosion came from a building farther down, sending more smoke and confusion into the air. Mark pressed his back to the building, gasping for air.
He felt like he was going to hyperventilate. Part of him wanted to run, but he couldn't convince his body to move. He was just about to force himself to go, when Sean slammed into him panting heavily. Mark's heart filled with enough relief that he could almost cry. Digging his hands into Sean's shoulders, he rushed him to the parking lot. Some cars were squealing as the drivers floored the cars to leave. Other cars crashed into others as they tried to find faster ways out. Some people were killing others for their vehicles. Mark managed to get to his van, climbing inside with Sean. He almost ran over a few people running around his van, but he managed to drive out. He thought about leaving the state, but he couldn't leave without Chica. So, he planned to make a short trip to his house. Along the way, Sean messed with the radio to see what was going on. The emergency broadcast was playing on all channels. It was telling people to stay home, or to evacuate to their nearest shelter. Then moments later was telling people to avoid the roads and going out.
All forms of law enforcement were closing roads and transports out of the state. Even the coast guard was in the process of keeping people from leaving by water. No planes could leave or land in California. The entire state was being quarantined as quickly as possible. When Mark arrived at his house, he brought Sean inside and began locking everything up. He was glad his family lived in another state and Amy was in Nevada with some friends visiting Area 51. Huddling up in his house, all he could do was watch the news and wait this out. Hoping things would get better, but as the weeks faded into months... Nothing improved. It only got worse. Whatever this was had spread across the globe like a plague. The only conclusion anyone on the news had was that the laughed at 'Zombie Plague' had finally happened. Turning the city of angels into the city of the dead. The news had devastated them both. They worried about their families and how they would survive in this new world. The only thing certain and painfully clear was that they were on their own. From here on out, they'd have to find a way to survive. To Be Continued...