The Final Bell (Zombie Apocalypse AU) (NCT127 x Reader)

Ringing Ears

Chapter warnings: Mild Language

Word count: 2216

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The pain was practically unbearable. Y/N had barely opened her eyes when it hit, sinking into every cell of her body and taking over her mind. There wasn't a bone in her that didn't feel broken. Her lungs struggled to pull in air and her skin stung. As her vision swam, she tried to pull herself up. The best she could do was barely make her way into a sitting position. 

The air around her was arid, the sky a sickening shade of yellow. Everything was dusty and reeked of old meat, and the wind blew dirt into her eyes. Shielding her face, she swallowed a few times, disgusted as she tried to clear her throat. Once she could finally make out her surroundings, she started putting the pieces together. 

She was lying on an asphalt bed- the center of the street. Every pane of glass in the windows of the buildings around her was shattered, bricks tumbling out of the foundations. There wasn't another person in sight, but there were occasional smoldering fires that indicated a recent presence. She almost laughed, thinking to herself how her family used to warn her against running into the road. 

Wait... her family! They were probably worried sick- or worse, were they alive? Why had this happened? The last thing she remembered... Think... Think... At first, she recalled a few weeks ago. Tensions were high between practically every country on Earth. People were beginning to question if there would be a third world war in the near future. Of course, this wasn't necessarily uncommon, so she hadn't been too worried about it. 

It kept coming back to her as she remembered a later news broadcast... more recent... China had just created a biological experiment. By tweaking a version of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, they believed they had created a perfect biological weapon that they were now threatening other countries with. It had worked, for a time at least. People began allying with them, convinced by the promise that the disease was perfectly controllable. That is, until the U.S. got involved. 

America began to defend the idea that biological weapons were a war crime, and they were more than prepared to crack down on this rule. By using disease as a weapon, one was dragging civilians into the mix. A fight was closer than ever. Y/N racked her brain for the rest of the details. Obviously, based on her surroundings, something had happened, but... what? Finally, she decided to figure out where she was and try and make her way back home. She was bound to remember eventually, right? 

As she stood up, she hissed through her teeth, bones cracking. Obviously she had been there for a while. Looking herself over, though, she was just bruised. She began to walk down the street, recognizing various buildings. Soon enough, she found herself in a familiar area. It was at least a 30 minute walk to her house, but she began without hesitation. The monotony of the journey gave her some more time to think, in which she recalled a bit more. 

China had launched what they believed was their complete bioweapon. Obviously, they chose to use it on the United States, their main contender. It wasn't long before things got out of hand, and with some of the biggest airports in the world, the states quickly spread the disease. Some countries retaliated with bombs, others with full-on military attacks. This wasn't the worst of it, though. Eventually, practically the whole planet was infected. 

The bio-weapon was meant to kill people, of course. Less people, less bodies in your fighting force, less money-makers, less of a chance of winning a war. The thing is, it didn't kill people. At first, this may seem alright. It most definitely was not. 

See, this virus was originally derived from Creutzfeldt-Jakob, also known as Mad Cow Disease. To make it dangerous to humans, it was also spliced with some tendencies aligning with rabies. What resulted was a viral, blood-transmitted disease that caused deteriorating brain function, fear of water and sensitivity to bright lights, abnormal digestion and nutritional needs, and a rotting body. It turned people into zombies.